' 

mm& 

'\MU'- 

<» 

**  *«* 

„.~ 

■^ 

ft--  ■  *:         .-,-,■  t.-^*"    'i 

- 

— * 

. — 

- 

--'■■■■'""'' 

r-.;-   : 

^H  • 

.^':-.y . 

. 

«%-"i; 

v;:--;  .;:;/■ 

—• .■u.iiWIW|"H''iM,fcM, 

—  - 

i'^j 

■  ">>'■ 

**».»»«**" 

»^^|H  >-■"'■;■"■' 

w 

^■v^-'-V 

rfw!:;'/':,'- 'it:'.';' 

atOTCH 


AW 


M#MwMiMriinwMi«^^ 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY    OF 

NORTH    CAROLINA 


C-U 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hil 


http://www.archive.org/details/menwhofoundameriOhutc 


THE    MEN    Who   Found   AMERICA 


"  Columbus  was    dressed    in  shining  steel,  with  a   beautiful   red  cloak,   and  he 
carried  the  red  and  yellow  flag  of  Spain." 


The 
MEN  Who  Found  AMERICA 


By 

Frederick  Winthrop  Hutchinson 


Illustrations  in  Color  by 

E.  Roscoe  Shrader 

AND 

Herbert    Moore 

"Decorations  by 

Edwin   J.    Prittie 


PHILADELPHIA 


Edward  Stern  &  Co.,  Inc. 

1909 


Copyright,  1909,  by  Edward  Stern  &  Co.,  Inc. 


Published,  September,  1909 

Press  of 
Edward  Stern  &  Co.,  Inc. 


Go 


CONTENTS 


A  Preface  to 
Chapter  I. 
Chapter  II. 
Chapter  III. 

Chapter  IV. 
Chapter  V. 
Chapter  VI. 

Chapter  VII. 
Chapter  VIII. 
Chapter  IX. 

Chapter  X. 
Chapter  XI. 
Chapter  XII. 


Parents. 

Page 

The  Alan  Who  Found  America 13 

The  White  Tyrant  of  Darien 26 

The     Beautiful     City    of    the    Floating 

Islands 37 

The  Swineherd  Who  Wanted  a  Castle.  48 

The  Noble  Who  Became  a  Slave 64 

How   De  Soto   Came  to   the   Father  of 

Waters 77 

The   Boy  Who  Loved  the  Sea 90 

The  Little  Red   Princess  of  the  Forest.  104 

The    Englishman    Who    Sailed    for    the 

Dutch 116 

The  Father  of  New  France 127 

The  Friends  of  the  Indians 141 

What  Came  of  It  All 155 

5 


List  of  COLOR    ILLUSTRATIONS 


Opposite 
Page 


"  Columbus  was  dressed  in  shining  steel,  with  a  beau- 
tiful red  cloak,  and  he  carried  the  red-and-yellow 
flag  of  Spain." — Frontispiece. 

"  The  kind  King  Montezuma  wanted  peace,  and  said  that 
he  would  give  the  Spaniards  more  gold  if  they 
would  only  go  back  to  their  own   country  "    40 

"  If    you  will   let  me  go  free,   Pizarro,   I   will  fill  up  this 

room  with  gold,   and   it  will  all  be  yours  " 56 

"  It  was   Ferdinand  de  Soto  who  first    found    this    great 

river,   who  first  came  to  the  Father  of   Waters"...        88 

"  Walter  sprang  forward  and  spread  his  handsome  cloak 

on  the  muddy  spot  " 96 

"  Henry    Hudson   got    many  furs    from   the   Indians  and 

made  them  all  his  friends  " 120 

"  Champlain  came  back  to  the  St.  Lawrence  River  and 

began  to  build  a  little  city  called  Quebec  " 132 

"The  Indians  loved    the    brave    Father   Marquette,   and 

called  him  their  friend  " 144 


7 


HOW  quickly  the  years  pass !  But  yesterday  they  were 
babies;  now  he  is  a  great  boy,  clamoring  for  trousers 
with  vast,  mysterious  pockets;  and  she,  dear  little  girl,  is  a 
mother,  caressing  her  dolls  with  an  infinity  of  maternal  graces. 

Could  they  but  stay  young!  Were  there  but  a  fountain, 
like  the  one  in  these  stories,  to  keep  them  forever  safe  in  a 
mother's  arms.  It  is  sad  to  think  of  their  ever  leaving  Baby- 
land. 

There  is  no  country  like  unto  this  beautiful  bourn  of  our 
children.  Here  are  the  dim,  magic  forests,  the  enchanted 
castles,  the  deep,  hidden  caves,  the  secret  tree-hollows,  where 
dwell  sparrows  and  fairies  and  lost  little  children.  In  this 
land  the  princess  is  ever  young  and  ever  beautiful;  the  bold 
Prince  Charming  slays  always  the  wicked,  watchful  dragon; 
the  fierce  Ogre,  with  his  one  malevolent  eye  forever  eats  the 
tender  children  at  his  ravenous  evening  meal.  The  land  is 
always  full,  yet  always  filling;  the  sun  is  forever  shining,  and 
flowers  spring  up  under  the  patter  of  little  feet.  Here  bad  is 
bad,  and  good  is  good,  and  always  the  good  comes  true.  For 
is  there  not  a  fairy  godmother  to  save  the  child  from  all  the 
childish  evil  in  the  world? 

What  a  land  of  adventure  it  is!  What  daring  deeds!  What 
heroic  exploits!  The  little  white  crib,  into  which  we  tuck  him 
so  tenderly — why,  that  is  no  crib  at  all!  It  is  a  great  ship,  with 
flapping  sails  unfurled,  creaking  under  stress  of  storm  and  sea, 
sailing  oceans  unknown  to  lands  of  which  we  have  never  heard. 
It  is  also  a  locomotive,  a  dizzy  air-ship,  an  automobile,  and,  in 


turn,  a  fort,  a  palace,  a  forest  and  a  wicked  robber's  cave. 
Resolutely  the  little  captain,  aeronaut,  king,  robber  and  police- 
man marches  through  all  this  brave  realm  of  limitless  adventure. 

Only  too  soon  the  child  must  leave  this  warm,  fair  land,  and, 
losing  his  baby's  heritage,  enter  upon  the  schoolboy's  estate. 
The  wicked  giants,  the  fairy  princesses,  the  wonderful,  magic 
animals  who  talk  and  think,  vanish  forever  before  the  spelling- 
book  and   arithmetic.     A  little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing. 

Soon  the  little  pilgrim  must  make  his  exploration  of  life  and 
knowledge.  He,  too,  "must  find  America."  Still,  let  us  not 
tear  him  from  his  own  charmed  domains,  nor  blow  our  icy 
breath  upon  the  warm  creatures  of  his  quickening  imagination. 
Let  us  rather  gently  bring  our  world  to  him,  so  that,  as  his  eye- 
lids open  after  his  deep  child's  sleep,  he  may  see  this  new  coun- 
try in  his  lap,  as  on  the  dawn  of  the  Christmas  morn  he  finds 
the  gracious  gifts  of  Santa  Claus  upon  the  laden,  glittering  tree. 

Into  the  wild,  romantic  life  of  the  nursery  I  venture  to  bring 
these  twelve  tales  of  twelve  great  men  and  brave.  They  are 
strange  stories,  and  should  be  welcomed  as  strangers.  And  they 
are  true — as  true  as  Cinderella,  as  true  as  Sinbad,  as  true  as  all 
the  golden  dreams  of  childhood. 

And  it  is  no  wonder;  for  these  stories  of  exploration  are  first 
cousins  to  those  your  children  already  know.  Aladdin's  lamp 
was  not  more  magically  pregnant  than  the  Devil's  courage  of 
the  Spaniards  in  the  fairyland  of  El  Dorado;  Dick  Whittington 
himself  was  not  more  marvelously  transformed  than  the  swine- 
herd who  came  to  rule  a  new-found  nation ;  and  bad  Bluebeard, 
or  even  the  gaunt  wolf,  who  ate  Red  Riding  Hood's  grand- 
mother, was  not  so  fantastically  melodramatic  as  the  wicked, 
wicked  man  who  hid  in  a  barrel. 

And  so  I  send  these  stories  to  the  little  children  in  the  hope 
that  they  may  pass  from  the  true  tales  of  fairies  to  these  other 

10 


true  tales  without  shock  or  rude  awakening.  May  the  old, 
beautiful  visions  linger,  and  at  last  fade  but  gently  into  the 
wildly  unreal  truth  of  the  actual  world!  May  the  two,  the 
tale  of  the  nursery  and  the  tale  of  the  great  dominion  beyond 
the  nursery,  live  together  in  friendship  and  amity,  so  that,  when 
at  last  the  little  one  comes  to  lose  his  fund  of  baby  lore,  it  will 
pass  from  him  as  gently  as  the  fleeing  consciousness  leaves  the 
drowsy  child ! 

To  the  little  children  of  America,  and  to  the  children  who 
have  borne  and  reared  children,  to  all  who  must  find  America, 
these  little  tales  of  '  'The  Man  Who  Found  America  "  and  other 
stories  are  affectionately  dedicated. 


11 


THE 


MAN 


W  H  O 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


. 


&* 


M 


m 


m 


THE   MAN  Who  Found  AMERICA 

MORE  than  four  hundred  years  ago,  when 
King  Ferdinand  and  the  wise,  gentle  Queen 
Isabella  ruled  over  Spain,  there  came  one  day  to 
the  court,  where  the  King  and  Queen  and  all  the 
brave  nobles  and  beautiful  ladies  stayed,  a  poor 
man  named  Christopher  Columbus.  He  was 
poor,  but  he  was  very  wise.  He  had  a  great 
plan,  a  plan  to  get  heaps  and  heaps  of  shining 
pearls,  and  red  rubies,  and  diamonds,  and  soft 
blue  and  white  and  yellow  silks,  and  many  other 
wonderful  things  for  Spain  and  the  good  King 
and  Queen.  Columbus  came  to  tell  the  King 
and  Queen  about  his  plan,  and  to  ask  them  to 
help  him. 

In  those  days,  even  the  wisest  men  believed 
that  the  earth  was  flat,  like  a  table.  They 
thought  that  if  a  ship  sailed  far,  far  across  the 
wide  ocean,  it  would  fall  off  the  edge  of  the 
earth,  and  down,  down  into  a  black  hole  that  was 
so  big  and  deep  that  it  had  no  bottom.  When 
Columbus  was  a  little  boy,  he  would  often  lie  in 
the  warm,  sunny  sands  by  the  seashore  and  listen 
to  the  talk  of  the  sailors,  who  came  together  and 


mim 


i&v 


rtj!.'  -— ''■'.,"'  \ifrri 


£ 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


whispered  stories  of  this  far-off  ocean.  Once  a 
sailor  with  long  black  hair  and  a  big  black  beard 
told  Christopher  how  his  ship  had  sailed  into  a 
sea  that  was  so  hot  that  it  sometimes  boiled  up 
like  water  in  a  tea-kettle.  Another  very  big 
sailor,  with  only  one  eye,  said  that  he  had  seen 
a  big  serpent  gliding  through  the  water,  and 
ugly  black  demons  who  lay  in  wait  for  ships  and 
men.  Another  sailor  told  of  a  bird  as  big  as 
the  tallest  house.  This  bird  lifted  ships  in  its 
claws  and  dropped  them  down  into  the  ocean 
with  a  great  splash,  and  all  the  poor  sailors  were 
drowned.  There  was  an  old,  old  sailor  who 
said  that  he  had  seen  a  big,  black  hand  come  up 
out  of  the  sea  and  catch  the  ships  and  drag  them 
down  into  the  deep  ocean.  This  sailor  had  a 
big,  sharp  knife  in  his  belt.  Once  he  whispered 
to  little  Christopher  that  he  had  sailed  and  sailed 
to  the  edge  of  the  earth  and  had  looked  over  the 
edge  into  the  deep,  black  hole.  And  he  said  he 
was  so  frightened  that  his  hair,  that  was  as  brown 
as  a  tree  before,  got  quite  white.  He  _told  little 
Christopher  that  this  ocean  was  so  terrible  that 
people  called  it  "The  Sea  of  Darkness." 

After  many  years   little   Christopher   grew  up 
to  be  a  brave,  wise  man.     He  said,  "These  stories 


lIKIlWiH 


1 4'v 


14 


THE 


M  A  X 


W  H  O 


FOUND         AMERICA 


■s,. 


m 


are  foolish.  They  are  not  true."  He  had  sailed 
often  on  the  ocean  and  he  had  never  seen  the 
great  black  bird,  or  the  big  hand  that  came  out 
of  the  sea,  or  any  of  these  terrible  things.  He 
had  read  books,  and  he  thought  all  night  about 
the  sea  and  the  earth.  "The  earth  has  no  edge," 
he  said  at  last;  "the  earth  is  round." 

One  of  the  books  that  Columbus  read  was 
about  a  brave  sailor  named  Marco  Polo.  This 
Marco  Polo  had  gone  far  away  from  his  little 
white  house  by  the  sea.  He  went  always  towards 
the  rising  sun,  sometimes  walking,  sometimes 
riding  on  queer-looking  camels  with  humps  on 
their  backs.  The  book  told  how  Marco  Polo 
had  found  in  that  far-off  country  beautiful,  shin- 
ing cities,  with  people  in  them  who  had  never 
heard  of  God.  This  country  was  called  the 
Indies.  Marco  Polo  had  brought  home  with 
him  big  white  pearls  and  soft  silks,  and  spices 
that  smelled  strange  and  sweet,  and  he  said  that 
anyone  who  could  reach  the  Indies  could  get 
these  beautiful  things.  But  it  took  years  and 
years  to  get'  there,  and  there  were  fierce  robbers 
on  the  road,  so  the  people  were  afraid  to  go. 

Columbus,  too,  wanted  to  reach  this  wonderful 
land.     But  he  knew  an  easier  way  than  the  long 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


FOUND         AMERICA 


r-^: 


journey  Marco  Polo  had  taken.  Columbus  knew 
that  the  earth  was  round,  like  an  orange,  because 
he  was  very  wise.  And  he  said,  "If  it  is  round, 
then  I  can  sail  around  it  and  I  won't  fall  off  the 
edge  of  the  ocean,  because  there  is  no  edge.  So 
I  will  sail  around  the  earth  until  I  reach  the 
Indies." 

Then  it  was  that  Columbus  went  to  the  King 
and  Queen  and  told  them  about  his  plan.  The 
King  and  Queen  were  much  surprised  at  the 
strange  stories  that  Columbus  told  them,  and 
they  called  around  them  their  wise  men  to  talk 
about  it.  The  wise  men  of  Spain  laughed  at 
Columbus.  They  said:  "Columbus  says  the 
earth  is  round.  If  it  is  round,  how  do  the  peo- 
ple on  the  other  side  live?  They  would  have  to 
stand  on  their  heads;  the  rain  and  snow  would 
fall  up  instead  of  down;  the  sun  would  never 
shine  there,  and  it  would  always  be  dark.  People 
could  not  live  like  that."  The  wise  men  told 
the  King  and  Queen  not  to  help  Columbus, 
because  he  was  crazy.  And  the  little  boys  and 
girls  made  fun  of  Columbus  and  touched  their 
foreheads  when  he  passed  them  in  the  streets, 
because  their  fathers  had  told  them  that  Colum- 
bus was  crazy. 


..,.,,  1 


ADW-'-' 


IUj 


to.yhUhl 


16 


THE 


MAN 


W  H  O 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


lili 


saw- 


So  the  King  and  Queen  told  Columbus  that 
they  would  not  help  him.  This  made  Columbus 
very  sad.  But  he  knew  that  he  was  right,  and 
he  kept  on  trying.  He  followed  the  King  and 
Queen  wherever  they  went.  He  went  with  them 
from  city  to  city,  always  asking  them  for  help. 
But  there  was  a  great  war  in  Spain,  and  the  King 
and  Queen  were  too  busy  about  the  war  to  listen 
to  Columbus. 

At  last  Columbus  said:  "If  the  King  and 
Queen  of  Spain  will  not  help  me,  I  will  go  to 
some  other  king  and  ask."  He  started  to  leave 
Spain.  You  can  well  believe  that  he  was  very 
sad.  But  then  a  very  strange  thing  happened. 
On  the  way  he  stopped  at  a  convent  to  beg  some 
bread  and  water  for  his  little  son.  This  boy's 
name  was  Diego,  which  is  the  Spanish  name  for 
James.  There  was  a  good,  wise  old  man  at  this 
convent.  When  he  heard  the  story  that  Columbus 
told,  he  said  he  would  help  him.  So  the  good 
old  man  from  the  convent  went  to  see  Queen 
Isabella  and  begged  her  to  help  Columbus.  He 
told  her  how  rich  and  great  Spain  would  become 
if  Columbus  found  the  Indies.  But  still  the 
Queen  was  afraid  that  Columbus  was  not  right, 
and  she  said  that  she  would  not  help  him.     Then 


1 


17 


HHg 


c 


THE 


MEN 


WHO 


FOUND         AMERICA 


Columbus  was  angry.  He  started  again  to  leave 
Spain.  This  time  he  almost  reached  the  end  of 
Spain  when  he  heard  someone  calling  to  him. 
It  was  a  man  sent  by  the  Queen.  "Good  news! 
Good  news!"  cried  the  man.  "Good  Queen 
Isabella  has  promised  to  help  you.  She  has  said: 
'  I  will  give  Columbus  ships  and  men,  even  if  I 
must  sell  my  golden  crown  and  my  beautiful 
rings  and  chains  to  get  the  money.'" 

How  glad  Columbus  wasl  He  had  waited  a 
long,  long  time,  and  now,  at  last,  he  could  go 
on  his  voyage.  Queen  Isabella  gave  him  three 
ships,  and  sailors  .to  sail  them,  and  she  told 
Columbus  that  if  he  found  the  golden  Indies  she 
would  give  him  barrels  of  shining  gold  and  some 
of  the  pearls  and  diamonds  and  silks  that  he 
would  find  there.  Columbus  thanked  her  and 
kissed  her  hand,  which  is  the  way  people  do  with 
Queens.  The  King  and  Queen  and  all  the  great 
lords,  with  their  shining  swords  and  velvet  coats, 
and  the  pretty  ladies  came  down  to  sea  to  say 
good-by  to  Columbus,  and  he  sailed  away  into 
the  big,  strange  ocean. 

For  many  days  Columbus  sailed  and  sailed 
and  sailed.  At  first  the  sailors  with  him  were 
happy  and  obedient,  for  Columbus  said,  "I  will 


H  E 


MAN 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


give  you  lots  of  beautiful  things  when  we  reach 
the  Indies."  But  as  they  sailed  day  after  day 
into  this  strange  ocean,  they  grew  very,  very 
much  afraid.  At  night,  when  Columbus  could 
not  see  them,  they  got  together  and  whispered 
to  each  other  stories  of  the  big  black  hand  that 
pulled  ships  down  into  the  sea,  and  of  the  great 
bird  that  lifted  ships  high  into  the  air  and  then 
dropped  them  deep  into  the  ocean,  so  that  the 
poor  sailors  were  drowned.  Even  the  soft,  gen- 
tle wind  that  blew  always  from  the  east  fright- 
ened them.  "How  can  we  ever  get  back  to 
Spain,"  they  cried,  "if  the  wind  blows  always 
away  from  Spain?"  For  in  those  days  they  had 
no  steamers,  with  big  engines  that  can  send  ships 
anywhere.  They  had  only  ships  with  sails,  which 
went  the  way  the  wind  blew. 

At  last  the  sailors  begged  Columbus  to  go 
back.  "We  shall  all  die  in  this  strange  sea," 
they  cried,  "and  we  shall  never  see  our  wives 
and  little  babies.  Let  us  go  back."  But 
Columbus  would  not  go  back.  Every  day  he 
told  them  stories  of  the  rich,  beautiful  country 
which  they  would  find.  And  he  told  them  to 
be  brave.  But  after  a  while  they  would  not  listen 
any  more;    and  when  they  found  that  Columbus 


E 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


m 


AAA 


8  Vir 


would  not  go  back,  some  of  them  said:  "Let 
us  throw  Columbus  into  the  sea.  Then  we  can 
go  back  to  Spain,  and  if  any  one  asks  us,  'Where 
is  Columbus?'  we  will  say  that  he  fell  into  the 
ocean."  Columbus  knew  what  they  said,  but 
he  was  brave  and  was  not  afraid.  He  believed 
that  if  he  sailed  far  enough  he  would  reach  the 
beautiful  Indies. 

Then,  one  day,  they  saw  something  on  the 
far-off  ocean,  and  the  sailors  joyfully  shouted, 
"  Land!  Land!  "  But  when  they  sailed  near,  they 
saw  it  was  only  a  cloud.  Then  the  sailors  were 
sad  again.  Every  day  they  all  looked  out  for 
land.  Queen  Isabella  had  promised  a  handful 
of  shining  gold  to  the  one  who  first  saw  land, 
and  Columbus  said  he  would  also  give  a  fine 
velvet  coat. 

How  lonely  the  poor  sailors  were!  Every  day 
they  saw  nothing  but  the  wide,  wide  ocean,  with 
the  rolling  waves.  At  last,  one  day,  some  birds 
flew  over  the  ships.  "Look!  Look!"  the  sailors 
shouted  joyfully.  And  they  said,  "If  there  are 
birds,  there  must  be  land  for  them  to  rest  on." 
But  although  they  looked  and  looked,  and  sailed 
quickly  after  the  birds,  they  could  not  find 
land. 


0&M 

tort 


20 


M 


i^-*e 


THE 


M  A  N         WHO 


•&& 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


Then,  on  another  day,  Columbus  fished  out 
of  the  sea  a  hawthorn  branch  with  berries  on 
it,  and  a  carved  stick.  The  sailors  crowded 
around  to  look  at  the  branch  and  the  stick,  and 
laughed  and  sang  for  joy.  "There  must  be  land 
for  the  hawthorn  to  grow  on,"  they  said,  "and 
there  must  be  people  who  carved  this  stick." 
Everyone  was  glad  and  happy  and  watched  eagerly 
for  land. 

Columbus  watched  too.  One  night  he  stood 
alone  on  his  ship,  looking  out  over  the  black 
ocean.  All  at  once  he  saw  a  little  light  in  the 
darkness.  It  was  so  little  he  could  not  be  sure 
it  was  a  light.  So  he  called  two  of  his  men  and 
asked  them  whether  they  could  see  the  light. 
"Yes!  yes!  "  they  cried,  "we  can  see  it.  It  seems 
to  move  up  and  down."  Still,  they  could  not  be 
quite  sure  until,  about  two  hours  afterwards, 
when  the  morning  began  to  grow  brighter,  one 
of  the  other  ships  fired  a  gun.  This  meant  that 
they  had  seen  land. 

When  the  sun  came  up,  everyone  could  see 
the  land.  It  was  a  beautiful  land,  with  waving 
green  trees  and  flowers.  But  it  seemed  even  more 
beautiful  than  it  really  was  to  brave  Columbus 
and  his  poor,  tired  sailors,  because  they  had  seen 

■■ 


iQs 


21 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


"<:,_ 


*■ 


nothing  but  the  wide  ocean  for  so  many  days. 
They  quickly  rowed  their  boats  to  the  shore  and 
landed.  Columbus  was  dressed  in  shining  steel, 
with  a  beautiful  red  cloak,  and  he  carried  the 
red  and  yellow  flag  of  Spain.  His  captains  also 
carried  flags.  They  all  knelt  down  on  the  shore 
and  thanked  God  for  bringing  them  to  this 
beautiful  place. 

They  did  not  see  any  of  the  beautiful  cities 
that  Marco  Polo  had  written  about,  but  men 
came  out  of  the  woods  and  ran  up  to  them  on 
the  beach.  These  men  had  straight  black  hair 
and  brown  skins,  with  bright-colored  feathers  in 
their  hair,  and  they  had  hardly  any  clothes  on. 
"Look!  Look  at  the  people  from  heaven!"  they 
cried,  when  they  saw  Columbus  and  his  men, 
with  their  white  skins  and  beautiful  clothes,  and 
their  ships,  which  looked  like  big  white  birds. 
These  people  were  Indians — not  fierce  like  the 
Indians  we  know,  but  very  kind  and  gentle. 
Columbus  had  never  seen  an  Indian  before,  and 
the  Indians  had  never  seen  a  white  man  in  all 
their  lives.  So  both  Columbus  and  the  Indians 
were  very  much  surprised  and  looked  at  each 
other  for  a  long  time.  Columbus  was  very  kind 
to  the   Indians.      He   gave  them   little  red   caps 


imiUMt 


22 


THE 


MAN 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


aMSKnzjej 


■■ 


and  pretty  glass  beads  and  little  tinkling  bells. 
The  Indians  liked  these  things  very  much,  and 
they  gave  Columbus  fresh  fruits  and  beautiful  red 
and  green  parrots  and  little  bits  of  gold. 

Columbus  called  these  people  Indians  because 
he  thought  this  country  was  part  of  the  Indies 
that  Marco  Polo  had  written  about.  He  did  not 
know  that  he  had  discovered  a  wonderful  new 
world,  far  richer  and  more  beautiful  than  the 
golden  Indies.  This  new  world  was  our  own 
America,  the  beautiful  land  where  we  all  live 
now. 

After  a  while,  Columbus  went  back  to  Spain 
to  tell  the  King  and  Queen  about  this  land. 
When  Columbus  sailed  up  to  the  city  by  the  sea, 
the  people  in  Spain  cheered  and  rang  bells  and 
fired  guns  to  show  their  joy.  When  Columbus 
came  to  the  throne,  the  King  and  Queen  made 
him  sit  down  beside  them.  This  was  a  great 
honor,  because  no  one  is  allowed  to  sit  down 
when  a  king  or  queen  is  in  the  room.  So 
Columbus  sat  down  and  told  them  how  he  had 
sailed  across  the  Sea  of  Darkness  and  at  last 
found  this  beautiful  country.  How  glad  now 
was  the  good  Queen  Isabella  that  she  had  sent 
Columbus!    She  made  him  a  great  lord  in  Spain 


23 


THE 


MEN 


WHO 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


mm Lfc 


and  gave  him  gold  and  jewels;  and  she  kept 
his  little  son  Diego  always  with  her,  to  hold  up 
her  long  silken  train  and  to  carry  her  fan  and 
handkerchief. 

Columbus  was  happy  now.  But  he  wanted 
to  see  more  of  this  new  land,  and  he  sailed  across 
the  ocean  again  three  times.  Once,  while  he 
was  away,  some  wicked  men  told  the  King  and 
Queen  lies  about  Columbus.  The  King  and 
Queen  believed  what  these  wicked  men  said,  and 
they  ordered  their  soldiers  to  put  big  iron  chains 
on  Columbus'  hands  and  feet  and  send  him  back 
to  Spain.  Poor  Columbus!  How  sad  he  felt! 
When  they  came  to  Spain  and  Columbus  saw 
Queen  Isabella,  she  soon  found  that  he  was  a 
good  man  and  that  the  stories  about  him  were 
not  true,  and  she  told  the  soldiers  to  take  the 
chains  off  Columbus,  and  said  she  was  sorry. 
But  Columbus  was  still  sad,  because  after  he  had 
found  this  beautiful  country  for  Spain,  they  had 
put  chains  on  him.  So  he  always  kept  the 
chains,  and  when  he  died,  he  asked  the  people 
to  bury  the  chains  with  him. 

There  was  another  thing  that  happened  that 
was  not  fair  to  Christopher  Columbus.  When 
a  man    finds  a  new  country,  it   always  ought   to 

24 


uiifwiitt 


]Xi£ 


"_-_L".;m 


THE 


:?- 


MAN        WHO 


:z     r 


FOUND 


A  M  E  R  I  C 


be  named  after  him.  But  our  country  was  never 
called  Columbia.  About  seven  years  after 
Columbus  found  the  new  country,  an  Italian, 
named  Amerigo  Vespucci,  sailed  across  the  ocean 
and  wrote  a  little  book  about  the  new  land.  He 
did  not  say  one  word  about  Christopher  Columbus 
being  there  first.  So  many  foolish  people  thought 
that  Amerigo  was  the  man  who  found  the  new 
country,  and  they  called  it  America,  in  honor  of 
Amerigo.  And  this  is  its  name  to-day;  and  this, 
I  think,  will  always  be  its  name. 

Columbus  was  old  when  he  died,  and  he  was 
poor,  too.  Good,  kind  Queen  Isabella  had  died, 
and  the  King  forgot  that  Columbus  had  found  a 
beautiful  new  country  for  him,  and  he  did  not 
give  him  any  more  money.  So  Columbus  was 
sad  and  poor.  After  he  was  dead  the  people 
knew  that  the  country  he  had  found  was  not  the 
Indies,  but  a  rich,  wonderful  country,  our  own 
America.  And  that  is  why  all  good  Americans 
love  the  name  of  Christopher  Columbus,  because 
he  came  and  found  America. 


25 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


FOUND         AMERICA 


The  WHITE  TYRANT  <DARIEN 

CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS  was  not  only 
a  brave  man,  he  was  also  a  very  good  man. 
I  wish  that  I  could  say  the  same  of  all  the  Span- 
iards who  came  after  him.  But  many  of  these 
men  were  cruel  and  deceitful  and  wicked.  They 
were  not  kind  to  the  Indians,  and  they  fought  and 
robbed  and  cheated,  and  their  only  thought  was 
to  grow  rich. 

Now,  one  of  the  most  wicked  of  all  these 
Spaniards  was  Balboa.  His  full  name  was  Vasco 
Nunez  de  Balboa,  but  I  think  I  shall  call  him 
only  Balboa.  He  was  as  cruel  as  a  man  could 
be.  He  liked  to  see  people  suffer,  and  if  anyone 
was  in  trouble,  Balboa  would  not  help  him,  but 
would  laugh  at  the  poor  man's  misfortune.  He 
borrowed  money  and  promised  to  pay  it  back; 
but  when  the  time  came,  he  told  the  people  who 
had  lent  him  the  money  to  get  it  back  the  best 
way  they  could.  He  quarreled  with  everybody, 
and  everybody  said  that  he  was  a  wicked,  wicked 
man. 

This  Balboa  was  born  in  Spain;  but  like  many 
other  Spaniards,  he    went    to    America    to    live. 


26 


THE 


W  H  I  T  E 


TYRANT 


O  F 


D  A  R  I  E  N 


Now  there  was  in  America  a  great  island  called 
Hispaniola,  where  many  Spaniards  had  houses. 
These  Spaniards  were  very  cruel  to  the  kind, 
gentle  Indians.  They  made  slaves  of  them,  and 
they  made  them  work  so  very  hard  and  so  very 
long  that  many  of  the  poor  Indians  died.  And  all 
the  while  the  Spaniards  lived  without  doing  any 
work  themselves.  They  walked  about  in  their 
fine  clothes,  and  they  drank  and  swore  and 
quarreled  with  one  another,  and  in  every  way 
were  as  bad  as  bad  could  be.  And  of  all  these 
wicked  Spaniards,  Balboa  was  the  worst.  When- 
ever anything  wicked  was  to  be  done,  Balboa 
would  do  it.  You  see  he  was  not  only  wicked,  but 
very  brave  and  very,  very  bold. 

Well,  after  a  while,  Balboa  grew  tired  of  the 
lazy  life  in  Hispaniola.  He  wanted  to  become 
rich,  and  it  was  harder  to  get  money  in  His- 
paniola than  in  other  parts  of  America.  Besides, 
nobody  in  all  the  island  liked  Balboa.  He  was 
so  cruel  and  quarrelsome,  so  unkind  to  the 
Indians,  that  the  people  used  to  look  at  him  coldly, 
and  shake  their  heads  when  they  passed  him  in 
the  street.  Then,  too,  those  who  had  lent  money 
to  him  began  to  want  it  back  again,  and  some 
men  said  to  Balboa,  "  If  you  do  not  pay  back  the 


5. 


■M 


w:4jt 


27 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


Mm 


money  you  owe  us,  we  shall  throw  you  into 
prison,  and  there  you  can  stay  in  the  dark  with 
the  rats  and  the  mice  until  you  die."  For  in 
those  cruel  days,  a  man  who  could  not  pay  his 
debts  was  thrown  into  prison.  Now,  you  can 
well  believe  that  the  wicked  Balboa  was  only 
too  anxious  to  get  away  from  the  island.  But 
how  could  he  do  it?  He  could  not  walk  away, 
because  an  island  has  water  on  all  sides,  and  he 
could  not  go  by  boat,  because  he  had  no  money; 
so  he  thought  and  thought  and  thought.  And  at 
last  Balboa  hit  upon  a  very  clever  plan.  One 
day  he  walked  down  to  the  sea-coast,  where  a 
ship  was  being  loaded,  and  when  nobody  was 
watching  he  quickly  crawled  into  a  great  empty 
wine-cask  and  pulled  the  lid  on  the  top.  There 
he  waited  and  waited,  hour  after  hour,  afraid 
every  moment  that  someone  would  miss  him  and 
look  in  the  wine-casks  on  the  boat.  He  hardly 
dared  breathe,  and  even  the  beating  of  his  heart 
seemed  to  him  as  loud  as  a  great  drum. 

But  no  one  came,  and  at  last  the  boat  took  up 
its  anchor  and  sailed  away.  Then  Balboa  was  very 
happy,  for  he  knew  that  he  was  free  from  His- 
paniola  and  all  the  pepole  who  hated  him  and 
all  the  people  to  whom  he  owed  money.      He 


28 


c 


THE         WHITE         TYRANT         OF         DARIEN 


m 


knew  that  he  would  not  have  to  go  to  prison. 
But  at  first  he  was  afraid  to  come  out  of  the  cask, 
because  he  was  afraid  of  what  the  captain  would 
say  when  he  saw  him.  He  waited  a  good  many 
hours  in  the  barrel,  but  at  last  he  gave  a  shove 
to  the  lid,  and  out  popped  the  red  face  and  red 
beard  of  Balboa.  As  he  did  so,  he  heard  the 
captain  and  all  the  sailors  give  a  great  shout,  for 
you  may  be  sure  that  they  were  much  surprised 
to  see  a  man's  head  come  out  of  a  barrel. 

Now,  the  captain,  whose  name  was  Encisco, 
was  a  very  disagreeable  man,  and  he  was  quite 
angry  when  he  saw  Balboa's  head  come  out  of  the 
barrel.  He  did  not  like  to  carry  people  on  his 
ship  for  nothing,  and  he  thought  that  Balboa  had 
cheated  him  when  he  hid  himself  in  a  barrel. 
"What  does  this  mean?"  he  shouted,  and  then 
he  swore  so  many  oaths  that  I  am  glad  you  and 
I  were  not  there,  though  perhaps  we  could  not 
have  understood,  because  it  was  all  in  Spanish. 

Well,  when  Balboa  told  the  captain  how  he 
had  to  run  away  from  the  island,  and  how  he  had 
no  money  to  pay  for  the  voyage,  Encisco  became 
angrier  and  angrier.  He  stamped  his  foot  and 
shook  his  fist;  his  eyes  got  black,  and  he  swore 
and  swore  and  swore.       "I  will  tell  you  what   I 


£M 


29 


THE. 


MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


ml 


m 


Mm 


will  do  with  you,"  roared  the  captain  so  loud 
that  the  wicked  Balboa  shook  with  fear;  "I  shall 
put  you  on  a  desert  island  without  food  or  water 
and  you  can  starve  to  death,  you  wicked  cheater." 
Now,  I  must  say  that  Balboa  was  a  brave  man, 
but  at  these  cruel  words  he  became  very  fright- 
ened. He  knew  that  Encisco  would  do  as  he 
said.  In  those  days  people  did  not  think  much 
about  killing  each  other,  and  Balboa  was  so  cruel 
himself  that  he  would  have  treated  the  captain 
just  as  cruelly  as  the  captain  was  now  going  to 
treat  him;  so  Balboa  threw  himself  on  his 
knees  and  begged  the  captain  to  spare  his  life. 
He  begged  and  begged,  but  the  more  he  begged, 
the  more  the  captain  swore  and  the  angrier  he 
grew.  But  at  last,  he  did  feel  a  little  sorry  for 
Balboa;  so  he  said,  "Get  up  from  your  knees. 
This  time  I  will  spare  your  life."  Now,  you 
will  think,  perhaps,  that  Balboa  was  very  grateful 
to  the  captain  for  sparing  his  life,  but  really  he 
was  not.  He  kissed  the  captain's  hand  and 
thanked  him  over  and  over  again,  and  swore  that 
he  would  lay  down  his  life  for  Encisco  whenever 
he  wished  it;  but  in  his  real  secret  heart  he 
hated  the  captain  and  only  waited  for  the  chance 
to  do  him  harm. 


HfUlMt 


THE         WHITE        TYRANT        OF         D  A  R  I  E  N 


t&» 


Well,  the  chance  came  sooner  even  than  Balboa 
had  thought.  One  day  a  great  storm  came  up 
and  the  little  ship  tossed  and  rocked  and  everybody 
was  afraid  that  the  boat  would  go  down.  The 
sailors,  who  were  wicked  men,  went  down  on 
their  knees  and  tried  to  pray  that  their  lives 
might  be  spared.  But  they  had  all  forgotten 
how  to  say  their  prayers,  and  the  storm  grew 
worse  and  worse,  and  at  last  the  little  ship  was 
dashed  to  pieces  on  a  rocky  coast.  The  sailors 
all  fell  into  the  sea,  but  luckily  for  them  the  water 
was  not  deep  and  they  were  able  to  swim  ashore 
alive.  At  last  the  men  were  all  on  land  again, 
but  not  one  of  them  knew  the  name  of  the  place 
or  the  name  of  the  country  where  they  had  been 
wrecked.  They  looked  up  and  down  the  coast, 
but  everywhere  they  found  only  sand  and  rocks, 
and  back  a  little  way  great  woods  of  waving 
palm-trees. 

Now  the  captain  ought  always  to  know  where 
he  takes  his  ship;  so  each  of  the  sailors  asked 
the  captain  the  name  of  the  country.  But  the 
captain  had  never  been  in  any  of  that  country, 
and  he  did  not  know  the  name  any  better  than 
the  sailors;  so  you  may  well  believe  that  they 
were  all  very  much  frightened.     Then  up  spoke 


£>} 


1 


31 


THE 


MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


the  crafty  Balboa.  He  had  been  very  quiet  and 
respectful  on  the  boat,  because  he  was  still  afraid 
of  the  desert  island;  but  here  on  the  land  he  was 
as  bold  as  you  please.  "  Captain,"  he  said, "I  know 
where  we  are,  for  I  have  been  here  before.  This 
is  the  country  of  Darien,  and  a  little  way  off  is 
an  Indian  village  to  which  I  will  take  you." 

Now,  when  the  sailors  heard  these  words  of 
Balboa,  they  were  very  glad.  They  cheered  and 
cheered  and  threw  up  their  caps,  which  were  still 
wet  from  the  sea-water.  Then  they  all  started 
off  for  the  Indian  village,  everybody  following 
bold  Balboa,  and  if  you  had  looked  on  at 
this  strange  march,  you  would  have  thought  that 
Balboa  was  the  real  captain  and  Encisco  only  a 
sailor.  It  was  not  easy  to  march  through  this 
country  of  Darien,  because  the  Indians  were  very 
unfriendly.  You  see,  before  this  time  some  other 
Spaniards  had  come  to  the  country,  and  robbed 
and  killed  and  tortured  the  Indians.  Perhaps 
Balboa  was  one  of  these  very  men.  Well,  any- 
way, the  Indians  did  not  love  the  white  men  who 
had  been  so  cruel,  and  so  from  behind  trees  they 
shot  arrows  at  the  ship-wrecked  sailors.  Many 
sailors  were  killed  and  more  were  wounded;  but 
Balboa,   though  very  wicked,  was  a  brave   and 


■ 


32 


utlt&nrW 


imSSt 


,,« 


THE        WHITE 


TYRANT 


O  F 


D  A  R  I  E  N 


wise  General,  and  he  beat  off  the  Indians  and 
got  the  sailors  safely  to  the  little  Indian  village. 

At  last  the  time  had  come  for  Balboa  to  make 
Captain  Encisco  sorry  for  wanting  to  put  him  off 
on  a  desert  island.  You  see  Balboa  could  never 
forgive  the  captain  for  making  him  kneel  and 
beg  for  his  life.  Besides,  he  was  very  proud  and 
wanted  all  the  glory  for  himself.  So  Balboa  took 
the  sailors  aside  one  by  one,  and  whispered  to 
each  of  them,  "Encisco  is  a  poor  captain  and  I 
am  a  good  one.  Make  me  your  captain  and  I 
will  treat  you  better  than  Encisco  does."  So 
the  sailors  all  made  Balboa  their  captain. 

Now,  at  last,  Balboa  had  his  wish  and  was  a 
great  man  in  a  new  country.  Here  he  could 
get  money  and  become  very  rich ;  but  I  am 
sorry  to  say  that  he  was  always  very,  very  cruel. 
He  used  to  rob  the  poor  Indians  and  murder 
them,  and  when  they  did  not  have  as  much  gold 
as  he  wanted,  he  would  tie  them  up  by  their 
thumbs  until  they  screamed  with  pain.  He  made 
them  hang  there  until  they  told  him  where  more 
gold  could  be  found.  Sometimes  the  poor 
Indians  would  not  know;  but  just  to  be  rid  of 
the  pain,  they  would  pretend  that  gold  was  hid- 
den in  the  forest  and  they  would  take  Balboa   to 


^lfak< 


33 


THE 


M  E  N 


\Y  H  0 


FOUND         AMERICA 


a^_ 


the  place.  But  if  Balboa  did  not  find  any  gold 
there,  and  often  he  did  not,  it  went  still  worse 
with  the  poor  Indians.  He  would  burn  them 
alive  on  a  slow  fire,  so  that  they  would  suffer 
great  pain.  Indeed,  he  grew  so  cruel  that  the 
Indians  called  him  "The  White  Tyrant  of 
Darien." 

One  day  the  son  of  an  Indian  chief  came  to 
where  Balboa  was  living  and  spoke  to  the  tyrant. 
"You  always  want  gold,"  said  he,  "but  I  will 
show  you  something  still  better.  Come  with  me 
a  few  days  to  the  West,  and  you  may  see  an 
ocean  as  great  as  the  great  sea  you  sailed  when 
you  camefromyourhome."  Now,  Balboa  thought, 
"If  I  can  find  this  great  sea  and  be  the  first 
white  man  to  look  at  it,  then  I  shall  be  a  famous 
man.  Besides,  there  may  be  gold  and  silver  and 
jewels  in  the  lands  beyond  this  new  sea."  So  off 
he  went,  taking  with  him  the  chief's  son  and 
some  of  the  Spanish  sailors.  It  was  not  a  long 
journey,  and  in  a  few  days  they  came  to  a 
mountain.  This  the  Indian  told  Balboa  to  climb. 
"  From  the  top,"  he  said,  "you  will  see  the  great 
ocean." 

Balboa  told  all  his  men  to  stay  below,  and  he 
went  up  alone  to  the  top  of  the  mountain;    and 


THE        WHITE        TYRANT 


O  F 


D  A  R  I  E  N 


&er\ 


^^ 


what  the  Indian  had  said  came  true.  There  lay 
the  great  sea,  stretching  in  all  directions  as  far 
as  the  eye  could  reach.  The  blue  waters  were 
as  quiet  as  a  little  lake ;  but  Balboa  knew  that 
this  was  a  great  ocean.  And  it  was  a  great 
ocean — the  Pacific  Ocean,  which  is  the  greatest 
body  of  water  in  the  world.  So  Balboa,  who  had 
run  away  from  Hispaniola  and  had  hidden  him- 
self in  a  barrel,  was  the  first  white  man  to  see  it. 

Then  Balboa,  wicked  and  cruel  though  he 
was,  knelt  down  on  the  top  of  the  mountain 
and  thanked  God  that  he  had  been  the  first  to 
see  this  great  ocean.  After  that  he  called  up 
his  men.  Up  they  ran,  each  trying  to  be  the 
first,  and  when  they  reached  the  top,  they  all 
looked  with  wonder  at  the  great,  peaceful  sea, 
that  shone  so  beautifully  in  the  noonday  sun. 

Then  the  men  piled  up  great  stones  until 
there  was  a  high  heap,  and  Balboa  went  down 
the  mountain  and  carved  the  name  of  King 
Ferdinand  upon  the  bark  of  the  trees.  A  few 
days  later  Balboa  came  down  the  mountain  to 
the  sea,  which  before  he  had  only  seen,  but  not 
touched.  He  walked  a  little  way  out  into  the 
ocean,  and,  waving  his  sword  in  the  air,  cried 
out  in   a   loud  voice  that  all  that  great  sea  and 


35 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


FOU  N  D 


A  M  E  R  I  C 


all  the  islands  in  it  and  all  the  lands  about  it 
belonged  to  Ferdinand,  the  King  of  Spain. 

Now,  if  any  one  did  such  a  foolish  thing  to- 
day, I  believe  that  we  would  all  laugh  at  him. 
A  great  ocean  cannot  belong  to  any  one  man, 
even  if  he  is  a  King,  or  even  to  any  one  nation, 
but  to  all  the  nations  and  all  the  people  of  the 
world.  But  King  Ferdinand  was  very  proud 
when  he  heard  of  what  the  bold  Balboa  had 
done,  and  so  he  made  him  the  ruler  of  the 
great  ocean  he  had  found. 

But  the  wicked  Balboa  did  not  go  without 
punishment  for  all  his  evil  deeds.  Every  day  he 
became  more  hard  and  more  cruel.  He  did 
not  keep  his  promise  to  be  kinder  than  Encisco, 
and  everybody  hated  him,  even  the  people  who 
knew  that  he  was  brave.  So  one  day  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Darien  had  him  sent  to  prison,  and  a 
short  time  after  that   Balboa's  head  was  cut  off. 

I  do  not  know  that  anybody  was  sorry.  Balboa 
was  a  very  brave,  bold  man,  and  he  did  find  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  But  the  braver  a  man  is,  the 
more  gentle  and  kind  and  good  he  should  be; 
so  I  think  Balboa  deserved  his  death,  just  as  he 
deserved  the  name  the  Indians  had  given  him 
of  "The  White  Tyrant  of  Darien." 


iimiiimt 


THE     BEAUTIFUL     CITY     OF     THE     FLOATING     ISLANDS 


:  ■   -  ...... 


■&BF 


THE      BEAUTIFUL      CITY 

.//^   FLOATING    ISLANDS 

COLUMBUS  had  gone  on  his  great  journey 
to  find  gold,  but  nowhere  did  he  find  it. 
Other  Spaniards  came  to  America,  all  looking  for 
gold,  like  Columbus.  But  gold  does  not  grow- 
in  the  street  nor  on  the  dusty  roads.  It  is  found 
in  gold  mines,  deep,  deep  under  the  earth,  where 
men  work  by  candle-light  and  dig  and  dig. 

Now,  there  was  a  man  named  Cortez,  who 
wanted  gold — much  gold.  He  wanted  to  become 
a  very  rich  man  and  go  back  to  Spain,  and  live 
in  a  beautiful  castle,  with  servants,  and  horses, 
and  fine  clothes,  and  jewels  of  many  colors  that 
glistened  in  the  sun.  Cortez  was  a  very  young 
man  when  he  went  to  America  to  live.  He  was 
only  nineteen,  but  he  was  strong  and  as  brave  as 
a  lion.  There  was  a  Spanish  Governor  in  the 
island  where  Cortez  lived,  and  the  Governor  did 
not  like  Cortez.  He  threw  the  young  man  into 
prison,  and  when  Cortez  escaped,  the  Governor 
threw  him  in  again.  But  Cortez  was  very  brave 
and  very  clever,  and  so  once  more  he  got  away, 


iiriiiii—M*i»^— ■'    ii  i  ii"  in 


37 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  0 


FOUND         AMERICA 


and  hid  himself  so  that  the  Governor  could  not 
find  him. 

Now,  there  had  come  news  from  further  west, 
from  the  land  which  we  now  call  Mexico,  that 
there  was  much  gold  in  that  land.  So  the 
Governor  of  the  island  said  to  himself,  "I  will 
send  some  soldiers  there,  and  they  will  take  the 
gold  away  from  the  Indians  and  bring  it  to  me; 
then  I  shall  be  a  rich  man,  and  can  go  back  to 
Spain  and  live  in  a  castle."  For  in  those  days 
there  were  castles  in  Spain,  large  and  gray  and 
beautiful,  with  great  iron  gates  and  a  ditch  of 
water  all  around,  so  that  no  man  could  enter 
except  the  friends  of  the  owner.  You  see  the 
Governor  of  this  island  wanted  to  be  rich  and 
great,  and  that  is  why  he  sent  a  little  army  of 
Spanish    soldiers    to   the   new    land   of    Mexico. 

"Who  is  the  man  that  will  lead  my  army?" 
asked  the  Governor.  "There  will  be  many 
dangers.  Perhaps  the  ships  will  go  down  in  a 
storm  and  all  will  be  drowned;  perhaps  the  food 
will  give  out  and  the  soldiers  and  their  Generals  will 
die  from  hunger,  or  it  may  be  that  the  Indians 
will  fight  them  and  shoot  them  to  death  with 
bows  and  arrows.  I  must  have  a  good  General — 
strong,  and  as  brave  as  a  lion."      And  then  he 


immiitK 


38 


BEAUTIFUL     CITY     OF     THE     FLOATING     ISLANDS 


-  .L- 


] 


thought  of  Cortez,  the  brave,  strong  young 
Spaniard,  and  he  made  him  General  of  the  little 
army.  USE 

So  one  day  the  ships  sailed  away  to  the  new 
land  of  Mexico.  Cortez  cheered  the  men  by  telling 
them  stories  of  the  great  country  they  were  going 
to  find.  "We  are  to  sail  and  to  fight,"  said  he; 
"to  fight  for  our  good  King,  for  Spain  and  for  God. 
The  people  that  live  in  this  land  are  not  Christians. 
They  do  not  believe  in  our  God,  and  we  must 
teach  them  about  Him  and  make  them  Christ- 
ians." But  even  while  he  spoke,  the  young 
Cortez  thought  of  gold,  gold,  gold — dollars  of 
gold  piled  up  to  the  sky;  goblets  and  plates  and 
dishes  of  gold;  tables  and  chairs  of  gold.  Gold, 
gold,  yellow  gold,  that  would  make  the  young 
Spaniard  the  richest  man  in  all  the  world. 

The  little  ships  took  up  their  anchors  and 
sailed  west  towards  the  sun  setting  in  the  waters. 
It  was  a  beautiful  sea,  all  green  and  blue,  with  here 
and  there  reefs  of  white  coral,  and  at  last,  far  in 
the  distance,  they  saw  the  beautiful  new  land  of 
Mexico.  The  sun  shone  bright  upon  the  green 
trees  of  the  forest,  and  all  the  flowers  of  the  field, 
red  and  purple  and  blue  and  yellow,  glistened  in 
the  bright  light.     The  boats  came  up  to  the  shore. 


i 


THE        MEN 


WHO 


FOUND 


A  M  E  R  I  C 


I 


Wu^^^m^B* 


"Here,"  cried  Cortez,  as  he  stood  on  the  white 
beach,  "here  I  shall  found  my  city,  and  I  shall 
call  it  the  'City  of  the  True  Cross,'  in  honor  of 
God  and  the  good  King  of  Spain."  And  to  this 
day  the  city  bears  that  name — the  "City  of  the 
True  Cross." 

Now,  there  lived  in  the  new  land  of  Mexico, 
high  up  behind  the  mountains,  a  nation  of 
Indians  called  Aztecs.  They  were  very  proud 
and  strong  and  brave,  and  had  conquered  many 
peoples.  These  Aztecs  were  not  like  the  Indians 
we  see  in  the  circus.  They  had  a  beautiful  city 
made  of  wood  and  stone,  with  houses  full  of  gold 
and  silver  ornaments,  and  this  wonderful  city  was 
built  upon  floating  islands.  The  King  of  the 
Aztecs  was  a  very  great  man.  His  name  was 
Montezuma,  and  his  father  had  been  King  before 
him  and  his  grandfather  had  been  King  before 
him;  and  so,  for  so  many,  many  years,  that  no  one 
among  the  Aztecs,  even  the  oldest,  could  remem- 
ber. 

Now,  there  was  a  story  among  the  Aztecs  that 
some  day  the  Children  of  the  Sun  would  come 
from  the  East  and  drive  Montezuma  and  his 
Indians  away.  These  Children  of  the  Sun, 
according    to    the    story,   were  not  red  like  the 


■BMM 


40 


The  kind    King  Montezuma  wanted  peace,  and  said   that  he  would  give   the 
Spaniards  more  gold  if  they  would  only  go  back   to  their  own    country." 


THE     BEAUTIFUL     CITY     OF     THE     FLOATING     ISLANDS 


V:~. 


zger 


7T-. -.-.•-  --•  .i- -:~ 


Aztecs,  but  white  like  Cortez  and  his  Spanish 
soldiers.  So  when  Montezuma  heard  of  the 
white  men,  who  had  come  and  founded  the 
City  of  the  True  Cross,  he  called  his  wise  men 
together.  They  were  very  old  and  very  wise, 
and  they  bowed  deep  to  Montezuma,  because  he 
was  King,  and  they  listened  to  what  he  said. 

"Now,  my  Lords,"  said  Montezuma  to  the 
wise  men  about  him,  "I  have  strange  news  to 
tell  you.  There  have  come  from  the  East  the 
Children  of  the  Sun.  They  are  white  men,  with 
black  hair  and  beards,  and  their  clothes  are 
made  of  metal  as  bright  as  silver,  so  that  it 
glistens  in  the  sun.  They  ride  on  big,  strong 
animals  that  run  faster  than  a  man."  You 
see,  Montezuma  had  never  seen  horses.  "And," 
went  on  the  King,  "these  children  have  come 
here  in  houses  that  sail  on  the  sea — in  ships 
such  as  we  Aztecs  know  not  of.  I  fear  that, 
when  they  see  our  beautiful  city,  they  will  kill 
our  people,  and  then  the  Aztec  nation  will  be 
no  more." 

The  King  paused,  and  in  the  great  hall,  where 
the  wise  men  were  gathered,  all  was  silent,  so 
silent  that  the  breathing  of  the  wise  men  could 
be  heard.      Then  again  the  King  spoke: 


mmmSm 


j£^ 


41 


T  H 


■;■  ■-  ' 


E         ME 

rr-rr— —  ^R*.-1  - 


N 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


W 


"My  Lords!"  he  called  out,  "what  shall  I 
do?" 

And  a  young  man,  the  bravest  of  all  the 
Aztec  princes,  arose  quietly  and,  facing  the  King, 
answered  his  question. 

'The  Aztecs,  my  Lord,"  he  said,  "have  always 
fought.  We  must  do  as  our  fathers  have  ever 
done,  fight  for  our  King  and  our  beautiful  'City 
of  the  Floating  Islands.'" 

Montezuma  was  silent  as  he  listened  to  the 
brave  words  of  the  young  prince,  and  all  the 
wise  men  were  silent  too. 

Then  a  very  old  man,  the  oldest  and  wisest 
of  all  the  wise  men  in  the  kingdom,  rose  in  his 
turn;  and  all  the  wise  men  listened  as  the  old 
man  spoke. 

"Not  so,  my  gracious  King,  not  so,"  he  said 
slowly.  "We  are  brave  men,  but  we  cannot 
fight  the  Children  of  the  Sun.  It  is  true  that 
our  soldiers  are  many  and  the  white  men  are 
few;  but  the  Sun  has  given  to  them  his  fire. 
They  have  tubes  that  are  called  guns,  and  when 
the  Indians  fight  these  white  children,  the  tubes 
speak  out  fire  and  noise,  which  kill  the  red  men. 
Where  are  our  brothers  to  the  East  who  have 
fought  the  white  men?      Dead,  my  Lord,  dead. 


r«W 


42 


THE     BEAUTIFUL     CITY     OF     THE     FLOATING     ISLANDS 


We  cannot  fight  against  the  Sun  or  against  his 
children.  We  must  send  to  the  white  men 
presents — rich  presents  of  gold  and  silver,  and 
beg  them  to  go  away  in  their  houses  that  sail  the 
sea — to  go  away,  they,  and  their  horses,  and  their 
guns,  and   not   come  up  to  our  beautiful    city." 

And  as  the  old  man  had  said,  so  the  King 
Montezuma  did.  He  gathered  together  great 
chests  of  gold  and  silver,  dresses  and  cloaks  of 
bright  green  peacock  feathers,  and  heaps  and 
heaps  of  red  rubies,  and  milky  white  pearls,  and 
precious  jewels  that  glistened  in  the  sun.  "Take 
these  to  the  white  men,"  he  said  to  his  servants; 
"take  this  gold  and  silver  and  all  these  beautiful 
gifts  to  the  white  men,  who  are  Children  of  the 
Sun,  and  beg  them  to  go  away  and  not  come 
up  to  our  beautiful  city." 

The  servants  did  as  Montezuma  had  bidden 
them.  They  did  not  have  horses,  but  all  day 
and  all  night  they  ran  as  swift  as  the  bird  flies, 
until  at  last  they  came  to  where  Cortez  and  his 
soldiers  waited.  Then  they  fell  on  their  knees 
and  bowed  their  heads  to  the  ground. 

"Behold,  oh  Children  of  the  Sun,"  they  said, 

"this   gold   and   silver,  and  all   these  rubies  and 

)recious    stones,  and   all  these  beautiful   things 


fir  r 


43 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


FOUND 


A  M  E  R  I  C  A 


Siiy 


are  the  presents  of  our  good  King  Montezuma 
to  the  white  men  who  have  come  from  the  East  ; 
and  our  King  Montezuma  begs  the  white  men 
not  to  go  up  to  his  beautiful  city,  but  to  take 
the  gold  and  silver  and  to  go  away  in  their 
wonderful  houses  that  sail  on  the  sea." 

Now,  when  Cortez  saw  all  the  gold  and  silver 
that  Montezuma  had  sent,  he  became  very  greedy. 
He  wanted  still  more  gold,  and  he  knew  that  if 
Montezuma  could  send  him  such  beautiful 
presents,  there  must  be  great  riches  in  the  won- 
derful city.  So  he  said  to  the  waiting  servants, 
"Tell  your  good  King  Montezuma  that  I  thank 
him  for  the  gold  and  silver  which  he  has  sent 
me,  and  that  I  and  all  my  men  with  me  will 
come  to  visit  him  in  his  beautiful  city." 

Then  the  servants  went  back  with  the  mes- 
sage. Now.it  was  a  long  and  dangerous  journey 
to  the  beautiful  city  of  the  Aztecs,  and  Cortez 
feared  that  his  men  might  be  afraid  to  go  so  far 
from  their  ships,  so  he  called  them  together. 
"I  am  going  on  a  long  and  dangerous  journey," 
he  said;  "those  who  go  with  me  shall  become 
rich,  very  rich,  but  those  who  are  afraid  can 
stay  here  on  the  seacoast."  And  the  soldiers 
answered,   "You    are  our   General,    Cortez,    and 


© 


,  ■jMUL',//fl'(tf  i^ft'Viiirrltiiiia^giii'ii 


U 


THE     BEAUTIFUL     CITY     OF     THE     FLOATING     ISLANDS 


sss 


where  you  go  we  will  go  too."  Then  Cortez 
burned  his  ships  so  that  no  one  could  turn  back, 
and  with  his  little  army  marched  up  to  the 
beautiful  city  where  King  Montezuma  lived. 

Now,  when  Montezuma  heard  that  the  white 
men  were  coming  to  his  beautiful  city,  he  did 
not  know  what  to  do.  Some  of  his  wise  men 
said,  "  Let  us  fight  the  Children  of  the  Sun,"  and 
others  said,  "Let  us  have  peace;  let  us  welcome 
the  white  men  as  guests  to  our  city."  So  Monte- 
zuma did  not  know  what  to  do. 

When  Cortez  reached  the  high  lands  and 
looked  out  upon  the  city,  he  saw  the  strangest 
sight  in  the  world.  The  city  was  built  on  islands 
that  floated  on  the  lakes,  and  there  was  water  all 
about  it,  and  bridges  with  gates,  and  soldiers  that 
stood  by  the  gates  to  keep  the  white  men  out. 
And  Cortez  was  afraid.  You  see  the  bridges  were 
very  narrow,  and  it  would  have  been  very  easy 
for  the  Aztecs  to  shoot  the  Spanish  soldiers  as 
they  crossed  the  bridges;  so  the  crafty  Cortez 
said  to  the  Indians,  "Listen,  my  friends;  let  us 
come  into  your  beautiful  City  of  the  Floating 
Islands,  for  we  are  tired  after  our  long  journey. 
Let  us  rest  with  you  a  little,  for  we  are  your 
friends  and  we  wish  you  to  be  ours." 


m 


45 


THE 


MEN 


W  H  0 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


BE 


So  the  Aztecs  let  the  white  men  cross  the 
bridges  and  enter  the  gates  of  their  city.  Now, 
as  soon  as  Cortez  and  his  soldiers  were  inside 
the  city  they  behaved  very  badly.  They  went  out 
on  the  streets  and  quarreled  with  the  Aztecs. 
They  found  fault  with  the  palace,  which  the  good 
King  Montezuma  had  given  them  to  live  in,  and 
they  always  thought  of  ways  in  which  to  take  from 
the  Aztecs  their  gold  and  silver  and  precious 
stones.  Now,  Cortez,  who  was  very  strong  and 
brave,  was  also  very  cruel  and  deceitful.  He  invited 
Montezuma  to  come  and  see  him  in  his  palace, 
and  when  the  Aztec  King  came  to  see  him, 
Cortez  told  his  soldiers  to  hold  him  prisoner. 
Then  the  white  men  went  out  into  the  streets 
and  fought  the  good  Indians  and  killed  many  of 
them.  The  kind  King  Montezuma  wanted  peace, 
and  said  that  he  would  give  the  Spaniards  more 
gold  if  they  would  only  go  back  to  their  own 
country.  But  the  Spaniards  did  not  wish  to  go 
back,  not  until  they  had  found  all  the  gold  and 
silver  in  all  the  land  of  the  Aztecs.  So  they 
fought  battles,  many  battles,  and  the  Spaniards, 
who  were  brave,  but  very,  very  cruel,  conquered 
all  that  country.  Many  of  the  Aztecs  were  killed, 
and  even  the  good  King  Montezuma  lost  his  life. 


a 


UlliUlltft 


46 


THE     BEAUTIFUL     CITY     OF     THE     FLOATING     ISLANDS 


rM*i~ 


Thus  it  all  came  to  pass  just  as  the  wise  men 
had  foretold,  and  the  City  of  the  Floating  Islands 
became  the  white  men's  city. 

But  it  did  not  go  well  with  Cortez.  To  be 
sure,  at  first  he  became  very  rich,  and  had 
beautiful  houses,  and  lands,  and  horses,  and  gold 
and  silver;  but  he  did  not  long  keep  these  things. 
He  grew  poor  again,  and  when  he  got  to  be  an 
old  man,  he  was  very  sad  and  unhappy.  And 
sometimes  I  think  he  must  have  been  sorry  for 
his  cruelties,  and  lies,  and  wickedness,  and  for  all 
the  unkind  things  he  did  to  the  poor  Aztecs  when 
he  and  his  soldiers  went  up  into  Mexico  and 
conquered  the  beautiful  City  of  the  Floating 
Islands. 


47 


THE 


MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


m 


THE    SWINEHERD    WHO 
WANTED     A     CASTLE 


ONCE  upon  a  time,  there  lived  in  a  little 
village  in  Spain  a  boy  who  tended  pigs. 
He  was  a  very  ragged  boy.  His  clothes  were 
old  and  torn;  he  wore  no  cap,  and  he  had  never 
in  all  his  life  had  on  a  pair  of  shoes.  His  food 
was  even  worse  than  his  clothing.  He  ate  nuts 
and  grapes  and  stale  crusts  of  bread,  and  some- 
times he  had  cheese.  But  meat  he  could  not 
have  more  than  once  a  month.  This  was  be- 
cause the  boy  was  very,  very  poor. 

Now,  it  is  not  pleasant  to  tend  pigs.  They 
are  such  dirty  animals,  and  they  grunt  and  grunt 
and  make  ugly  noises  all  the  time.  It  is  very 
disagreeable  to  sit  all  day  and  have  nothing  to 
do  but  to  talk  to  filthy  pigs,  and  see  that  they 
do  not  walk  off  into  the  woods  and  get  lost. 
So  the  little  Spanish  boy  hated  his  work  and 
wished  that  he  could  get  away. 

The  name  of  this  little  boy  was  Francisco 
Pizarro.  I  do  not  wish  to  pretend  that  he  was 
a  good  boy,   because   he   was   not.      He  was   a 


u, 


:?m 


THE      SWINEHERD      W H  O      W  A NTED 


AST 


::;j 


bad  boy,  and  he  grew  up  to  be  a  wicked  man; 
but  one  thing  I  must  say  for  him,  he  was  surely 
very  brave.  And  perhaps  he  became  bad  be- 
cause, as  a  boy,  he  did  not  have  a  good  home 
nor  any  nice  boys  to  play  with. 

Near  where  Francisco  lived  was  a  beautiful 
castle.  It  had  big,  light  rooms,  and  long  tables, 
and  fine  gilt  chairs,  and  wonderful  pictures,  and 
everything  that  the  heart  could  desire.  Fran- 
cisco had  never  seen  the  inside  of  this  castle. 
There  was  a  great  wall  all  around  it,  and  in  this 
wall  a  big,  strong  gate  that  was  locked  every 
night.  A  soldier  in  a  yellow-and-red  coat  stood 
at  this  gate,  and  of  course  he  would  not  let  the 
ragged  little  swineherd  in.  The  young  Fran- 
cisco used  to  watch  the  old  soldier  as  he  pulled 
at  his  mustache,  and  sometimes,  when  the  soldier 
wasn't  looking,  the  boy  pressed  his  head  against 
the  iron  bars  and  looked  into  the  garden.  He 
could  only  see  a  little  corner  of  the  castle,  but 
he  saw  the  beautiful  trees  in  the  garden,  and  the 
soft,  green  grass  and  the  fountain  which  seemed 
so  cool  in   the  hot  afternoons. 

It  made  Francisco  very  angry  to  see  this 
beautiful  garden  and  not  be  allowed  to  go  into 
it.      He  complained  to  his  mother,  but  she  could 


u 


49 


THE         MEN 


\Y  H  O 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


~  "  -'-*T?g 


■      V 


#2 


r-7V 


not  do  anything,  because  it  wasn't  her  castle, 
and  she  was  as  poor  as  Francisco.  'You  are 
only  a  swineherd,"  she  said  to  him,  "and  swine- 
herds cannot  have  castles;  so  stop  thinking  of 
the  castle  and  go  back  to  your  pigs." 

But  Francisco  did  not  stop  thinking  of  the 
castle.  He  had  seen  in  the  garden  a  little  boy 
of  his  own  age,  and  he  saw  that  the  boy's 
clothes  were  made  of  fine,  soft  cloth,  and  that 
he  had  a  lovely  black  feather  in  his  cap.  He 
remembered,  too,  that  a  kind  old  man,  with  a 
long  white  beard,  had  walked  with  this  boy  in 
the  garden,  and  had  taught  him  many  things 
out  of  a  great  book.  Poor  Francisco  had  never 
been  to  school,  and  he  had  never  had  a  teacher, 
like  this  boy  with  the  fine  clothes;  but  he 
wanted  all  the  things  that  the  little  boy  in  the 
garden  had,  and  he  made  up  his  mind  that  he 
would  get  them. 

I  told  you  before  that  Francisco  was  not  a 
good  boy,  and  so  he  did  not  ask  himself  whether 
it  was  right  for  him  to  want  all  these  things. 
"I  do  not  care,"  he  said  almost  out  loud;  "I 
do  not  care  what  my  mother  says,  or  what  the 
priest  says,  or  anybody.  Good  or  bad,  right  or 
wrong,  I   am   going  to   get   my   castle."      That 


50 


THE     SWINEHERD      WHO 

will  show  you  the  sort  of  a  boy  Francisco  really 
was. 

Now,  Francisco  saw  that  it  was  no  use  to 
stay  in  his  little  village;  there  he  would  always 
be  a  swineherd.  Every  day  he  hated  the  pigs 
more  and  more.  He  hated  them  so  much  that 
he  threw  stones  at  them  when  they  squealed. 
At  last,  with  two  other  boys,  he  ran  away.  I 
think  that  Francisco  and  his  two  friends  were 
a  little  afraid,  at  first,  that  their  mothers  would 
send  after  them  and  catch  them.  So  they  went 
away  by  night,  and  by  the  next  morning  they 
were  far  along  the  quiet  road.  Day  after  day 
they  walked.  They  used  to  find  chestnuts  on 
the  ground,  and  over  the  high,  green  hedges 
hung  bunches  of  wild  purple  grapes  that  any- 
body might  pick.  The  good  country  people 
were  all  as  poor  as  poor  could  be;  but  they 
always  gave  the  tired  boys  a  bite  of  bread  and 
a  cup  of  goat's  milk.  Francisco  was  very 
happy.  He  was  glad  to  be  away  from  the  dirty, 
squealing  pigs,  and  he  believed  that  every  step 
he  took  brought  him  nearer  to  the  castle  he  had 
dreamed  of. 

At    last,   the    boys    reached    Seville.       Now, 
Seville    was    a    very    large    and    beautiful    city. 


CASTLE 


q 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


vSi 


There  were  fine  houses  and  glorious  palaces, 
like  the  castle  that  Francisco  wanted,  and  women 
in  beautiful  dresses  and  men  rode  up  and 
down  the  crowded  streets  on  great  black  horses. 
It  was  all  like  Wonderland;  and,  as  Francisco 
looked  at  everything  —  the  streets,  shops  and 
people — his  eyes  almost  popped  out  of  his  head. 

But  in  this  rich  city  of  Seville,  Francisco 
was  poorer  than  ever  before  in  all  his  life. 
Here  in  the  great  city  nobody  cared  for  the 
ragged  boy,  and  there  were  no  kind  country 
people  to  give  him  bread  and  goat's  milk.  Yet, 
after  a  while,  Francisco  managed  to  make  a  little 
money,  though  even  then  he  was  still  poor. 
Often  he  went  to  bed  without  supper,  and  his 
castle  seemed  to  be  as  far  away  as  ever. 

Of  all  the  things  in  the  great  city  of  Seville, 
Francisco  liked  the  soldiers  best.  They  seemed 
so  big  and  brave  in  their  beautiful  uniforms,  and 
the  boy  envied  them  and  wished  that  he,  too, 
could  be  a  soldier.  "It's  a  good  way  to  get 
rich,"  he  thought  to  himself.  It  was  a  good 
way  in  those  times.  Nowadays  people  don't 
get  rich  by  killing  each  other;  but  in  the  olden 
days,  to   be  a  soldier   was  one  of   the  best   ways 

Lto  get  money  and  become  great. 


r/er/ 


mimiiiw 


52 


THE      SWINEHERD      WHO      WANTED      A      CASTLE 


m 


tgi0m 


So  Pizarro,  who  was  now  quite  big  and  strong, 
became  a  soldier.  A  great  war  was  being  fought 
in  Italy,  and  Pizarro  was  sent  there  with  other 
Spanish  soldiers  to  fight  for  his  King.  The 
young  man  was  very  brave.  I  think  that,  even 
then,  he  was  cruel,  but  the  Spaniards  did  not 
care  about  that,  so  long  as  he  was  only  brave. 
So  when  he  came  back  from  the  great  war  in 
Italy,  everybody  said  "Pizarro  is  a  very  good 
soldier." 

Now,  in  the  meantime,  Columbus  had  found 
America.  I  told  you,  in  another  story,  how  the 
people  in  Spain  were  very  glad  over  the  news, 
and  how  everybody  wanted  to  go  to  the  wonder- 
ful new  lands  to  make  a  fortune.  Well,  you 
may  be  sure  that  Pizarro  wanted  to  go  too;  but 
for  a  long  time  he  could  not  leave  Spain.  I 
cannot  tell  you  why,  because  I  do  not  know 
myself.  Anyhow,  he  could  not.  But  at  last  he 
got  a  chance,  and  with  a  band  of  other  Spaniards 
went  to  the  new  country  that  Columbus  had 
found. 

By  this  time  Pizarro  was  no  longer  a  boy, 
nor  even  a  young  man;  he  was  almost  forty 
years  of  age.  He  had  seen  many  lands  and 
done  many  things;    yet  he  was  still  poor,  and  it 


iQ? 


m 


fcUffitf 


THE 


M  E  X 


W  H  O 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


seemed  to  him  as  though  the  castle  that  he  had 
dreamed  of   as  a  boy  was  as  far  away  as  ever. 

Well,  at  first  America  was  no  better  than 
Spain.  Pizarro  lived  on  a  rich  island,  which 
was  then  named  Hispaniola,  but  which  is  now 
called  Cuba.  There  were  many  other  Spaniards 
on  the  island,  and  these  were  all  just  as  greedy 
and  anxious  to  get  rich  as  Pizarro.  They  were 
a  very  wicked  set  of  men.  All  the  bad  things 
that  a  man  can  do  they  did;  but  above  all,  they 
were  cruel  to  the  poor  Indians.  They  used  to 
make  the  red  men  work  for  them  day  and  night, 
and  if  the  work  was  not  enough,  they  beat  the 
poor  Indians  until  they  died.  I  think  that 
Pizarro  was  just  as  cruel  as  the  rest;  but  in 
spite  of   his  wickedness  he  did  not  get  rich. 

Now,  after  a  while,  when  Pizarro  was  almost 
fifty  years  old,  he  went  to  a  new  country  in 
America,  where  the  Indians  were  very  rich,  and 
where  there  were  very  few  Spaniards.  This  was 
the  land  of  Darien,  where  Balboa  had  gone 
about  ten  years  before.  Here  the  friendly 
Indians  had  much  gold  and  many  beautiful 
jewels.  They  gave  to  Pizarro  many  precious 
stones  and  more  gold  than  he  had  had  in  all 
his  life;    so   the   swineherd    became   rich  at  last. 


HUlliB 


THE     SWINEHERD      WHO      WANTED      A      CASTLE 


R 


sger 


But  Pizarro  was  not  satisfied  even  with  these 
riches.  The  more  he  had,  the  more  he  wanted; 
so  one  day,  when  he  heard  of  some  islands  in 
the  great  ocean  to  the  West,  where  the  Indians 
were  very  rich,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  go  to 
these  islands  and  take  the  gold  from  these  In- 
dians. His  men  were  very  glad  to  go,  so  they 
got  canoes  and  paddled  out  to  where  the  islands 
lay.  This  was  a  very  bold  thing  to  do,  because 
the  sea  was  rough,  and  many  times  the  canoes 
turned  over  and  the  soldiers  were  almost 
drowned. 

At  last  they  reached  the  island,  and  Pizarro, 
standing  up  in  his  canoe,  saw  the  Indians  crowd- 
ing on  the  beach,  with  their  bows  and  arrows 
in  hand,  ready  to  shoot  the  first  Spaniard  who 
landed.  Now,  Pizarro,  though  a  wicked  and 
greedy  man,  was  very  brave;  so  he  told  his 
soldiers  to  fire  their  guns.  As  soon  as  the  In- 
dians heard  the  guns  of  the  Spaniards  they  were 
frightened,  and  after  a  little  battle  they  ran 
away.  Then  Pizarro  and  his  men  landed  on 
the  sandy  beach.  Here  they  found  many  pearls, 
which  they  took,  and  when  there  were  no  more 
pearls  on  the  island,  they  paddled  back  to  their 
homes. 


;•/)•    A 


55 


F 


THE    MEN    WHO    FOUND    AM  ERIC 


-J,"': 


When  Pizarro  had  sold  these  pearls  he  was 
very  rich  indeed.  He  had  now  enough  money 
to  buy  his  castle.  It  was  really  not  exactly  a 
castle,  but  a  fine,  big  house  in  Darien,  with 
fields  around  it  and  cattle,  and  a  great  many 
Indian  servants  to  do  whatever  Pizarro  wanted. 
You  would  think  now  that  Pizarro  would  be 
satisfied,  for  he  was  a  hundred  times  richer  than 
the  other  little  boy  who  used  to  live  in  the  castle 
in  the  old,  old  days  when  Pizarro  was  only  a 
swineherd. 

But  the  greedy  Pizarro  was  never  satisfied. 
After  a  few  years,  he  heard  how  the  brave 
Cortez  had  conquered  Mexico,  and  he  heard, 
too,  that  Cortez  had  become  even  richer  than 
he  was.  So  Pizarro  wanted  to  be  as  rich  as 
Cortez,  and  he  looked  around  for  a  new  nation 
to  conquer. 

Now,  at  this  time  there  was  living  in  Peru, 
many  hundreds  of  miles  to  the  South,  a  great 
tribe  of  Indians  called  the  Incas.  They  were 
not  savages,  but  wise,  kind  people  like  the 
Aztecs  of  Mexico,  whom  Cortez  had  conquered. 
These  Incas  were  very  rich.  They  had  won- 
derful gold  and  silver  mines,  and  they  owned  so 
much    gold    and    silver    that    they    could    cover 


UIM1IIW 


ML 


<VA 


i  S 


Sm: 


"  If  you  will  let  me  go  free,  Pizarro,  I   will   till   up  this    room    with    gold,   and 

it  will  all  be  yours." 


THE      SWINEHERD      WHO      WANTED      A      CASTLE 


A-.i 


■3 


walls  with  them;  and  they  also  had  precious 
stones,  green  emeralds,  red  rubies,  blue  sapphires 
and  beautiful,  brilliant  diamonds  that  glistened 
in  the  sun. 

I  could  tell  you  many  things  about  these 
curious  people — how  they  prayed  to  the  sun  and 
the  moon  instead  of  to  God;  of  the  wonderful 
temples  and  palaces  that  they  built;  of  their 
fine,  hard  roads  cut  through  the  mountains,  and 
of  the  King's  messengers,  who  ran  along  these 
roads,  day  and  night,  carrying  news.  I  could 
tell  you  how  all  the  people  obeyed  the  Inca, 
who  was  King  of  the  country;  how  they  all 
worked  for  him,  and  how  he  gave  them  food 
and  clothing  and  houses,  so  that  no  man  in  all 
the  land  was  ever  hungry  or  thirsty  or  cold. 

Now,  when  Pizarro  heard  of  these  Incas,  he 
thought  to  himself,  "I  will  go  up  to  Peru  and 
fight  with  these  people,  and  take  away  from 
them  all  their  gold  and  silver  and  jewels  and  all 
their  cities  and  palaces."  I  think  that  it  was 
wicked  of  Pizarro  to  want  to  disturb  these  good, 
quiet  people,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  the  man 
who  had  been  a  poor  swineherd  should  have 
been  satisfied  with  the  money  he  had,  and  could 
have  left  the  Incas  alone. 


57 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


But  Pizarro  was  always  greedy.  He  got 
together  a  little  band  of  soldiers  and  started  to 
go  up  to  Peru.  I  say  up,  because  Peru  was 
high  up  among  the  mountains.  Pizarro  thought 
that  it  would  be  easy  to  find  Peru;  but  things 
did  not  go  as  he  had  hoped.  Nobody  could 
tell  him  where  the  great  country  lay,  and  there 
were  no  maps  to  show  him  the  way.  By  mis- 
take, Pizarro  and  his  little  army  landed  on  a 
lonely  desert  island  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  There 
were  swamps  and  marshes  on  this  island,  and 
there  was  little  to  eat,  and  even  the  water  was 
not  good  to  drink.  The  men  suffered  from 
mosquitoes  and  great  flies,  that  stung  them  so 
they  could  not  sleep.  And  worse  than  all,  there 
were  poisonous  snakes  that  bit  the  men  so  that 
they  died.  They  suffered  from  hunger  and 
thirst,  and  some  fell  sick  and  died.  Pizarro 
sent  back  his  ship  for  more  men  and  more  food, 
and  I  am  sure  he  was  glad  when,  after  a  few 
weeks,  the  white  sails  were  seen  again.  The 
ship  brought  plenty  of  food ;  but  the  Governor 
of  Darien,  who  was  jealous  of  Pizarro,  would 
not  send  any  more  soldiers.  Instead,  he  sent 
word  by  the  ship  to  Pizarro,  saying,  "Pizarro, 
you  must  come  back  to  Darien." 


58 


THE      SWINEHERD      WHO      W  A  X  T  EL)      A      CASTLE 


Now,  the  men  were  only  too  glad  to  go  back. 
They  had  suffered  enough,  and  they  did  not 
want  to  be  bitten  and  starved  any  more — no, 
not  for  a  hundred  Perus.  "We  will  go  home," 
they  said,  "as  our  Governor  says."  At  first  the 
bold  Pizarro  said  nothing;  then  with  the  point 
of   his  sword   he   drew  a  sharp  line  in  the  sand. 

"North  of  this  line,"  he  said,  "is  home; 
south  of  this  line  are  Peru  and  glory  and  gold." 
And  then  he  stepped  across  the  line,  meaning 
that  he  was  going  to  Peru,  even  if  he  had  to  go 
alone.  The  soldiers  all  saw  that  Pizarro  was  a 
brave  man,  but  none  of  them  wanted  to  go 
with  him.  "We  do  not  wish  to  be  killed," 
they  said  to  themselves.  At  last,  the  pilot  of 
the  ship,  a  brave,  reckless  fellow,  with  a  long 
beard,  named  Luiz,  crossed  the  line.  "I  go," 
he  said,  "wherever  Pizarro  leads."  After  that 
others  followed.  At  last  there  were  thirteen 
men  across  the  line  who  were  willing  to  go  with 
Francisco  Pizarro. 

These  brave  men,  I  can  tell  you,  had  a  pretty 
hard  time  before  they  reached  Peru.  They  had 
to  cross  the  sea  on  a  raft,  which  is  a  very  danger- 
ous thing  to  do.  But  the  Indians  were  kind  to 
them  and  gave  them  food  to  eat,  and  when  they 


' '  V*-V"  ■  ■  I 


59 


THE 


M  E  N 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


got  to  Peru  the  Incas  were  even  kinder.  Now, 
Pizarro  was  not  only  greedy,  but  he  was  also 
very  deceitful,  and  he  made  believe  to  the  Incas 
that  he  was  their  friend;  but  all  the  time  that 
he  was  taking  their  beautiful  presents,  he  was 
learning  about  the  country,  so  that  he  could 
come  back  in  a  little  while  with  a  bigger  army 
and  rob  and  murder  them. 

And,  in  a  few  years,  Pizarro  did  come  back 
with  a  big  army.  This  time  he  had  two  hundred 
men  and  thirty  horses  and  a  great  many  guns. 
The  Incas  in  all  their  lives  had  never  seen  a 
horse,  and  had  never  seen  people  killed  with 
guns;  so  Pizarro  knew  that  they  would  be  very 
much  frightened  when  they  saw  his  men  on 
horses,  and  saw  the  guns  that  killed  with  bullets. 
And  they  were  afraid.  Wherever  Pizarro  and 
his  soldiers  went,  the  Incas  lost  their  courage. 
When  they  saw  a  man  on  a  horse,  they  thought 
that  it  was  all  one  animal,  half  man  and  half 
horse;  and  so  frightened  were  they,  that  Pizarro 
came  to  one  city  that  was  quite  empty,  for  all 
the  people  had  run  away  in  fear  of  the  cruel 
Spaniards  who  were  half  men  and  half  horses. 

Yet  I  do  not  think  that  Pizarro  would  have 
conquered    Peru  if   he  had  fought  fair.      There 


-  HI^BB^^BB^BH 


■^■BRwRS 


UflrtlH* 


Ul)r 


•  1  Hi 


THE      SWINEHERD      WHO      WANTED      A      CASTLE 


-"■:ii,:--.' 


wzm 


!•>!?•■■ 


were  so  many  soldiers  among  the  Incas  that  they 
seemed  to  spring  up  everywhere;  but  Pizarro 
was  very  crafty,  and  he  thought  out  a  very 
clever,  cruel  plot.  He  made  believe  he  was 
a  friend  to  the  Inca,  who  was  the  great  King  of 
all  these  people,  and  he  invited  him  on  a  visit. 
Then  when  the  Inca  came  to  visit  Pizarro,  that 
wicked  man  had  him  arrested  and  cast  into 
prison,  and  all  the  Indians  who  were  with  the 
Inca  were  killed  or  driven  away. 

Now,  the  Inca  was  a  very  brave  young  man, 
but  he  did  not  want  to  be  killed.  He  knew 
that  when  he  was  dead,  his  soldiers  would  lose 
their  courage.  After  a  while,  he  noticed  that 
Pizarro  was  very  greedy  for  gold;  so  he  said  to 
him,  "If  you  will  let  me  go  free,  Pizarro,  I  will 
fill  up  this  room  with  gold,  and  it  will  all  be 
yours." 

The  greedy  old  Pizarro  was  very  happy  over 
this,  for  he  always  wanted  gold.  Now,  I  do 
not  know  why  any  man  should  want  so  very 
much  gold,  because  you  cannot  eat  it  or  drink 
it  or  wear  it.  But  Pizarro  was  greedy,  as  greedy 
as  any  old  man  in  all  the  world,  and  so  he 
promised  the  Inca  to  let  him  go  free  if  he  filled 
up  the  room  with  gold.      The  Inca  sent  for  his 


mm 


m 


61 


Ik 


?Q? 


(itepy;. 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


■     ■■-■  i 


. 


messengers,  and  day  after  day  the  servants  of 
the  Inca  came  carrying  great  heaps  of  gold. 
At  last,  after  six  months,  the  room  was  almost 
filled  to  the  ceiling;  but  even  then  the  treacher- 
ous Pizarro  did  not  keep  his  word.  He  made 
believe  that  the  Inca  was  trying  to  raise  an  army 
against  the  Spaniards  (which  I  think  he  would 
have  had  a  right  to  do  if  he  wanted  to,  for,  after 
all,  the  country  belonged  to  him  and  not  to  the 
cruel  Spaniards);  so,  instead  of  letting  the 
brave  Inca  go  home,  as  he  had  promised,  the 
cruel  Pizarro  told  him  he  must  die,  and  the 
very  same  day  he  had  the  Inca  put  to  death. 

After  that,  the  greedy,  deceitful  Pizarro  got 
more  gold,  and  more  gold,  and  always  more  and 
more  and  more.  Wherever  he  went  he  made 
the  people  give  him  money.  He  really  ruled 
the  country,  although  he  pretended  to  the  In- 
dians that  he  did  not,  and  he  ruled  it  very 
cruelly  indeed,  and  every  day  he  became  richer. 

But  after  all,  the  money  he  got  did  not  do 
him  any  good.  He  was  now  one  of  the  richest 
men  in  all  the  world.  But  nobody  loved  him, 
and  I  think  that  in  his  secret  heart  Pizarro  was 
not  very  happy.  Every  day  the  savage  old  man 
became  more  greedy  and  more  wicked  and  more 


62 


THE      SWINEHERD      WHO      WANTED      A      CASTLE 


i         u 


cruel,  until  not  only  did  the  Indians  fear  him 
and  hate  him,  but  the  Spaniards  hated  him  even 
more.  There  was  a  man  named  Almagro,  who 
had  once  been  his  friend;  but  Pizarro  cheated 
him,  too,  and  then  murdered  him.  Well,  at 
last,  one  day,  the  son  of  this  Almagro,  a  young 
man  named  Diego,  went  to  Pizarro's  palace  with 
some  of  his  friends.  "You  have  killed  my 
father,"  cried  Diego;  "now  it  is  your  turn." 
The  cruel  old  Pizarro,  though  he  was  seventy 
years  old,  fought  bravely  to  the  end;  but  he 
was  stabbed  over  and  over  again,  and  at  last  he 
fell  dead  at  the  feet  of  Diego. 

And  thus  ended  the  life  of  the  brave,  wicked 
Pizarro,  the  swineherd  who  wanted  a  castle. 
He  became  one  of  the  richest  men  in  all  the 
world  and  conquered  a  nation;  yet  sometimes  I 
think  he  would  have  been  happier  if  he  had 
always  remained  till  the  end  of  his  days  a  poor 
swineherd. 


63 


M  E  N 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


THE    NOBLE    Who   Became  a    SLAVE 

DURING  all  this  time,  while  Cortez  was 
fighting  in  Mexico  and  Pizarro  was  mak- 
ing his  plans  to  go  to  Peru,  there  lived  in  Spain 
a  great  noble,  named  Cabeza  de  Vaca.  This 
man  was  always  talking  about  America.  He 
could  tell  you  about  Christopher  Columbus  and 
his  great  voyages,  and  about  Balboa  and  Cortez, 
and  all  the  other  Spaniards  who  had  gone  to 
America.  Whenever  any  ship  came  back  from 
that  land,  De  Vaca  was  always  anxious  to  hear 
all  the  news. 

Now,  as  the  years  went  on,  De  Vaca  thought 
that  he,  too,  would  like  to  go  to  America.  He 
said  to  himself,  "If  Cortez  can  find  gold  and 
riches  in  that  country,  why  cannot  I?"  Be- 
sides, he  believed,  like  so  many  others  at  that 
time,  that  somehow  or  other  he  could  find  a  way 
through  America  to  the  Indies.  The  Indies 
were  supposed  to  be  very  rich,  and  De  Vaca 
thought  it  was  a  country  with  more  cities  than 
the  stars  of  the  heavens.  He  had  been  told 
that  each  of  these  cities  had  more  people  in  it 
than    you    could  count   in   a   year,    and   he   also 


wimiii* 


JlilH*^ 


THE-    NOBLE      WHO       BECAME 


SLAVE 


H 


HI 


§§ 


thought  that  all  these  people  had  gold  and  dia- 
monds and  rubies,  and  would  give  them  to  you 
for  little  glass  beads.  "If  I  only  can  find  a 
way  to  this  place,"  he  said  to  himself,  "I  shall 
be  the  richest  man  in  the  world.  I  shall  be  as 
great  as  the  great    King." 

So,  because  he  wished  to  find  gold  in  America 
and  because  he  wanted  to  find  a  way  to  another 
land  which,  he  thought,  was  even  richer  than 
America,  De  Vaca  sailed  away  to  the  West. 
He  was  not  the  captain  of  the  fleet;  but,  being 
a  rich  lord,  he  was,  of  course,  very  important. 
West  the  ships  sailed,  until  one  bright  day  in 
Spring  they  landed  at  Tampa  Bay,  in  Florida. 

Now,  Cabeza  de  Vaca  and  the  Spaniards  with 
him  were  not  the  first  men  who  had  come  to 
Florida.  This  part  of  the  country  had  been 
found  about  sixteen  years  earlier  by  a  rich 
Spaniard  named  Ponce  de  Leon;  and  the  story 
of  how  Ponce  de  Leon  came  to  find  Florida  is 
so  interesting  that  I  must  tell  you  about  it. 

Ponce  de  Leon  was  one  of  the  brave  men 
who  had  sailed  with  Columbus  across  the  great 
ocean,  and  afterwards  he  had  been  made  Governor 
of  an  island  called  Porto  Rico.  He  was  rich,  and 
famous,  and  powerful;    but   he   was   not   happy, 


65 


THE 


MEN 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


because  he  was  growing  old  and  he  wanted  to 
be  young. 

In  those  days  the  people  believed  that  old 
men  could  grow  young  again,  just  as  they 
believed  many  other  things  that  we  now  know 
are  very  foolish.  One  day  an  Indian  came  to 
the  great  Ponce  de  Leon  and  said  to  him,  "If 
you  will  go  to  the  islands  of  the  West  you  will 
find  there  a  magic  fountain.  Bathe  your  hands 
in  the  fountain  and  drink  the  waters,  and  as  soon 
as  you  have  done  so,  a  strange  thing  will 
happen.  Your  white  beard  will  become  black; 
your  dim  eyes  will  grow  clear;  your  weak,  thin 
legs  will  grow   strong  and  stout  again." 

Ponce  de  Leon  loved  youth  more  than  he  loved 
money  or  power  or  anything  else  in  the  world. 
So  he  made  up  his  mind  to  sail  away  on  a  ship 
and  find  the  magic  fountain.  I  do  not  know 
whether  he  wanted  only  to  get  young  himself, 
or  whether  he  wanted  all  the  people  in  the 
world  to  bathe,  so  that  no  one  would  ever  grow 
old  and  no  one  would  ever  die.  It  would  have 
been  very  strange,  I  think,  if  Ponce  de  Leon  had 
found  the  fountain.  There  would  never  have 
been  any  old  people  any  more,  and  your  grand- 
father would  have  been  as  young  as  you  are. 


66 


THE       NOBLE      WHO       BECAME      A      SLAVE 


"..v."-. 

'    j 


saw 


Well,  there  wasn't  a  place  in  all  the  islands 
of  the  West  that  Ponce  de  Leon  did  not  visit  to 
find  the  magic  fountain.  Every  day  the  old 
man  would  put  his  hands  under  some  little  foun- 
tain, and  then  watch  to  see  whether  his  hair 
would  grow  black  and  his  legs  strong  again.  It 
never  happened,  and,  for  one,  I  do  not  believe 
that  there  ever  was  such  a  magic  fountain.  Well, 
one  Easter  morning,  while  sailing  around  looking 
for  islands,  where  the  magic  fountain  might  be 
hidden  by  trees,  Ponce  de  Leon  saw  a  beautiful 
new  land,  the  most  beautiful  land  he  had  ever 
seen.  There  were  wonderful  green  palms  that 
never  died,  and  on  the  ground  were  flowers  of  all 
colors,  red  and  yellow  and  blue  and  purple. 
The  air  was  soft  and  warm,  and  high  up  in  the 
trees  the  birds  sang  so  sweetly  that  it  almost 
made  the  old  De  Leon  weep.  "It  is  Paradise," 
he  said;  "here  I  shall  surely  find  my  youth." 

He  called  the  country  Florida,  which  is  the 
name  it  still  bears,  and  he  looked  everywhere 
for  the  magic  fountain,  of  which  he  had  been 
told  by  the  Indian.  But  he  did  not  find  it  at 
that  time,  nor  did  he  find  it  later,  though  he 
came  back  again,  with  many  men  who  wished 
to  make  homes  in    Florida.      The    Indians  were 


?sL 


- 


m 


67 


THE 


MEN        WHO        FOUND        AMERICA 


1_L^ 


.&■■£• 
& 


very  unfriendly;  they  did  not  want  the  Spaniards 
to  land,  so  there  was  a  battle  between  the 
Spaniards  and  the  Indians  and  De  Leon  was  shot. 
The  arrow  had  been  dipped  in  poison  and  the 
wound  got  worse  and  worse,  and  in  a  short  time 
Ponce  de  Leon  died. 

So  it  happened  that  the  old  man  who  looked 
for  youth  found  death  instead.  Yet,  to-day, 
Florida  is  a  beautiful  land,  where  the  flowers 
still  grow  and  the  birds  still  sing,  and  many 
people  go  there  from  all  over  our  country  to 
bathe  in  the  wonderful  salt  water  and  the  warm 
sunshine,  and  here  they  get  health  and  strength, 
though,  of  course,  they  do  not  get  what  Ponce 
de  Leon  looked  for — youth  everlasting. 

Perhaps  the  Spanish  noble,  Cabeza  de  Vaca, 
thought  of  the  poor  Ponce  de  Leon  when,  so 
many  years  after,  he  and  his  companions  landed 
in  Florida.  "What  will  happen  to  us?"  he  said 
to  himself.  "Will  we  find  what  we  want,  gold 
and  a  way  to  the  Indies,  or  will  we  too  die  from 
hunger  and  sickness  and  the  poisoned  arrows  of 
the  Indians?" 

When  the  Spaniards  landed  from  their  ships, 
they  found  that  the  Indians  were  quite  as 
unfriendly  as  they  had   been  to  Ponce  de  Leon. 


THE       NOBLE       W  H  O       BECAME 


AVE 


So  the  Spanish  noble,  De  Vaca,  told  the  captain, 
whose  name  was  Narvaez,  that  he  thought  it 
would  be  safer  to  stay  near  the  ships.  The 
Indians  had  told  Narvaez  that  there  was  gold  in 
the  country  towards  the  West,  near  the  moun- 
tains. Narvaez  wanted  gold  right  away,  so  he 
and  his  men  didn't  listen  to  De  Vaca,  but  began 
their  weary  march  inland. 

Now,  this  march  was  much  longer  and  harder 
and  more  dangerous  than  any  of  the  Spaniards 
had  thought  when  they  started.  There  were  no 
roads  or  even  paths,  and  they  had  to  cut  their 
way  through  great  forests,  where  the  trees  and 
bushes  grew  so  thick  that  you  could  hardly  tell 
where  you  were  going.  Often  they  lost  their 
way  in  swamps.  Their  feet  sank  into  the  water, 
and  they  had  to  ask  each  other's  help  so  that 
they  would  not  sink  into  the  swamp  and  die. 
The  sun,  too,  was  broiling  hot,  and  the  mos- 
quitoes and  insects  bit  them  all  day  and  all 
night,  so  that  often  they  cried  out  with  pain  and 
could  not  sleep. 

Besides,  every  day  the  Indians  were  more  and 
more  unfriendly.  This  was  the  Spaniards'  own 
fault.  They  had  burned  some  Indian  chiefs, 
whom  they  had  found  in  a  little  village,  and  all 


69 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


S3i« 


the  other  Indians  hated  the  Spaniards  and  thought 
them  very  wicked.  They  called  them  white 
devils.  Now,  the  Indians  knew  of  a  good  way 
through  the  swamps  and  the  forests,  but  they 
would  not  tell  the  Spaniards,  because  of  the 
Indian  chiefs  whom  the  Spaniards  had  burned. 
So  Narvaez  and  De  Vaca  and  the  men  who  were 
with  them  had  to  fight  their  way  through  the  great 
swamps.  Some  poor  fellows  died  of  sickness, 
and  all  were  hungry  and  tired.  So  you  can  well 
believe  that  they  were  glad  to  reach  at  last  a 
little  Indian  village. 

The  Spaniards  expected  to  find  gold  here,  but 
there  was  hardly  any  gold  in  all  the  village.  They 
did  find  a  little  corn  and  enough  food  to  keep 
them  from  dying;  but  even  with  this  they  were 
little  better  off  than  before.  The  Indians  were 
their  enemies,  and  whenever  a  Spaniard  walked 
away  from  the  village  he  was  sure  to  be  killed 
with  an  arrow.  Even  when  the  Spaniards  led 
their  horses  to  water,  they  were  shot  at  by  the 
Indians,  who  were  hidden  behind  trees.  At  last 
things  became  so  bad  that  the  Spaniards  had  to 
go  back  to  their  boats  by  the  sea.  It  was  a  hard 
march.  They  could  only  get  food  from  the 
Indians  by  fighting  for  it,  and    many  Spaniards 


UiMUWt 


THE       NOBLE       WHO       BECAME 


SLAVE 


■■2il 


■&& 


were  shot,  and  many  others  fell  sick  and  died 
from  the  bad  water  in  the  swamps.  They  had 
to  go  on,  because  the  Indians  would  kill  any 
who  stayed  behind.  So  they  marched,  and 
marched,  and  marched,  day  after  day,  and  day 
after  day,  losing  men  all  the  time,  until  at  last 
they  reached  the  great  sea. 

But  it  wasn't  Tampa  Bay,  where  they  had  left 
their  ships  many  weeks  before,  nor  was  the  coast 
like  any  they  had  ever  seen  before.  There  was 
no  life  anywhere  on  all  the  great  water,  and  there 
was  no  human  being  on  all  the  miles  of  hot, 
white  sand  that  stretched  away  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  see.  The  soldiers  lost  their  courage. 
"We  shall  never  get  home,"  they  cried  in 
despair.  "We  shall  die  on  this  terrible  sea- 
coast,"  and  some  of  the  great,  strong,  bearded 
men  threw  themselves  on  the  sands  and  cried  as 
though  their  hearts  would  break. 

Well,  after  a  while  they  picked  up  courage. 
No  matter  how  bad  things  look,  a  brave  man 
never  gives  up  hope.  They  knew  that  they  were 
hundreds  of  miles  west  of  Tampa  Bay,  but  they 
remembered  that  there  were  some  few  Spaniards 
living  near  the  place  where  they  were.  So  De 
Vaca  and  the    others   made    up  their    minds    to 


7 

r4 


THE 


MEN 


WHO         F  O  U  N  D         AMERICA 


:-r^i§. 


"■^^^  ' 


build  boats  in  which  they  might  sail  to  the  other 
Spaniards.  Well,  it  is  not  easy  to  build  ships 
when  you  have  no  sails,  and  no  tools,  and  no 
pitch,  and  no  ropes;  but  with  patience  you  can 
do  almost  anything.  So  the  Spaniards  cut  down 
trees  for  wood,  made  rope  out  of  the  hair  of 
their  horses'  tails  and  manes,  and  used  their  shirts 
for  sails.  Month  after  month  they  worked,  liv- 
ing on  horse-meat  and  shell-fish  and  a  little  corn 
which  they  took  from  the  Indians. 

At  last  the  boats  were  finished  and  they  sailed 
away.  Up  and  down  the  coast  they  went,  always 
hunting  for  the  Spaniards  who  lived  nearby, 
and  all  the  time  things  grew  worse  and  worse 
with  them.  They  were  hungry  and  sick  and 
frozen  to  the  bone.  For  days  the  sun  beat 
down  on  them,  burning  their  skin,  and  then  the 
cold  shock  gave  them  chills  and  fever.  At  last 
a  great  storm  came,  that  drove  their  boats  apart 
and  threw  them  up  against  the  rocks. 

The  boat  on  which  De  Vaca  sailed  landed  on 
a  little  island,  and  the  little  band  of  soldiers 
would  surely  have  died  of  hunger  if  the  Indians 
had  not  been  very  kind.  The  Indians  built 
large  fires  for  the  half-drowned  men,  and  gave 
them  hot  food  and  drink,  and  when   some  other 

■p 


;:;'j!i>K 


THE       NOBLE       WHO       BECAME       A       SLAVE 


tOV 


boats  appeared  like  little  specks  far  away  in  the 
distance,  they  threw  more  wood  on  the  fires  so 
that  the  smoke  would  rise  in  clouds  and  guide 
these  ships  also  to  the  shore. 

Here  the  tired  Spaniards  stayed  for  many 
months;  but  most  of  them  did  not  live  long. 
One  after  another  they  died,  until  only  De  Vaca 
and  three  others  were  alive.  These  four  were 
all  who  were  left  of  the  bold  men  who  had 
sailed  for  Florida  a  year  before. 

But  the  troubles  of  the  brave  De  Vaca  and 
his  three  tired  men  were  not  yet  over.  They 
could  not  stay  long  on  the  island  with  the  good 
Indians,  so  one  fine  morning  they  said  good-by 
to  their  new  friends,  and  made  their  way  to  the 
West.  It  is  a  great  wonder  to  me  that  they  did 
not  all  die,  for  their  troubles  and  dangers  were 
great.  Sometimes  the  Indians  were  kind  to 
them,  and  gave  them  food  and  a  place  to  sleep; 
but  often  they  were  very  cruel,  and  once  they 
kept  De  Vaca  and  his  men  locked  up,  and  made 
them  work  as  slaves. 

You  can  imagine,  perhaps,  how  hard  it  was 
for  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  who  was  a  noble  and  a 
great  man  in  his  own  country,  to  have  to  be  a 
slave  in  a  little    Indian  village.      In  Spain   there 


s 


73 


MEN         WHO        FOUND        A  M  E  R  I  C 


t 


were  always  people  to  wait  on  him,  and  when- 
ever he  wanted  anything,  he  called  and  a  servant 
came  to  ask  what  he  wanted.  But  here  in  the 
little  Indian  village,  where  all  the  people  were 
half  naked,  he  had  to  work  in  the  fields  and  dig, 
and  cut  wood  and  carry  water,  and  do  whatever 
else  his  master  told  him.  Yet,  I  wonder,  did 
De  Vaca  ever  think  of  the  thousands  of  Indians 
who  had  been  made  slaves  by  the  Spaniards? 
Slavery  is  always  wrong,  and  it  was  just  as  wrong 
to  have  Indian  slaves  as  to  have  black  slaves,  or 
white  slaves,  or  slaves  of  any  kind. 

So  this  great  noble  had  to  work  for  the 
Indians,  but  it  was  not  for  long.  In  a  short 
time,  the  Indians  saw  that  their  slave  was  wiser 
than  they  were;  he  could  teach  them  many 
things,  and  he  could  cure  them  when  they  were 
sick.  So  they  were  good  to  him  and  treated 
him  as  a  chief,  and  after  a  while  they  let  him 
and  his  three  men  go  free. 

Now  that  De  Vaca  and  his  three  men  were 
free,  they  started  on  their  journey  again.  They 
went  on  day  after  day,  week  after  week,  month 
after  month,  and  year  after  year.  It  was  six 
years,  six  long  years,  that  they  walked  on  and  on 
over    deserts    and    thick    forests,  crossing  deadly 


uimiiitK 


.  Mmm 


74 


THE       NOBLE       WHO       BECAME 


SLAVE 


&er 


swamps  and  great,  wide  rivers.  Often  they  had 
nothing  to  eat  but  nuts  and  roots,  and  as  their 
clothes  had  worn  out,  they  froze  in  winter  and 
almost  burned  in  summer.  Many  a  time  they 
wanted  to  lie  down  and  die ;  but,  being  brave  men, 
they  never  quite  gave  up  hope.  So  they  kept  on. 
Then  one  day,  through  the  great  forest  they 
caught  sight  of  the  sea,  and  they  were  so  happy 
that  they  wept  tears  of  joy;  and  here  they 
found  that  they  were  among  their  own  people 
again.  For  the  first  time  in  six  years  they  saw 
white  faces  once  more;  for  the  first  time  in  six 
years  they  heard  men  speaking  their  own  beauti- 
ful language,  the  Spanish  language,  which  they 
loved  so  dearly. 

You  can  well  imagine  how  glad  everybody  was 
to  see  them.  The  tired  but  happy  Cabeza  de 
Vaca  had  to  tell  his  story  over  and  over  again 
— all  the  wonderful  adventures  he  had  had  since 
he  landed  in  Tampa  Bay,  of  the  great  rivers 
and  swamps  he  had  crossed,  and  of  the  suffer- 
ings he  had  passed  through.  And  where  do  you 
think  he  was?  He  was  far  to  the  West,  way 
out  upon  the  Gulf  of  California,  near  the  great 
Pacific  Ocean.  Cabeza  de  Vaca  had  walked 
across  America. 


ro? 


«fi»r-  >r 


75 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND        AMERICA 


^ 


_ 


It  is  true  that  De  Vaca  never  found  the  things 
he  came  to  America  to  find;  for  not  always 
did  men  find  gold  and  glory  like  Cortez  and 
Pizarro.  But  De  Vaca  was  happy  and  satisfied. 
When  he  sailed  away  back  to  his  own  home  in 
Spain,  he  had  no  gold  to  take  with  him,  but  he 
was  happy,  happy  to  be  with  his  own  people 
once  more,  happy  that  he  no  longer  had  to  be  a 
slave  to  the  Indians  in  America. 


m 


76 


HOW    DE    SOTO    CAME    TO    THE    FATHER    OF    WATERS 


- 


*&*■> 


z^&i 


HOW    DE    SOTO    CAME    TO 
THE   FATHER   OF   WATERS 

IN  the  olden  days,  while  the  bold  Columbus 
was  sailing  across  the  ocean,  there  lived  in  a 
gray,  mossy  castle  in  Spain  a  young  lad  named 
Ferdinand  de  Soto.  This  Ferdinand  was  a  very 
lonely  boy.  He  had  no  father  and  no  mother, 
and  there  were  no  other  boys  with  whom  he 
could  play.  All  he  could  do  was  to  watch  the 
birds  flying  in  the  green  woods  near  the  castle, 
and  listen  to  their  sweet  songs.  Sometimes,  in 
the  long,  beautiful  afternoons,  he  would  go  out 
walking  with  his  faithful  dog,  or  ride  on  top  of 
his  big  black  horse,  that  the  boy  had  known  and 
loved  ever  since  he  was  a  little  baby. 

Ferdinand  did  not  go  to  school.  There 
weren't  many  schools  in  those  days  and  only  the 
very  rich  could  go;  and  Ferdinand,  though  he 
lived  in  a  castle,  was  very  poor.  But  he  did 
learn  how  to  ride  on  a  horse  and  how  to  fence 
with  a  sword.  His  servant  taught  him  these 
things.  This  servant  was  a  good,  strong  old 
man,  with  eyes  as   black  as  coal  and   hair    and 

6SS 


•<#tK 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


beard  as  white  as  snow.  Soon  the  young  Fer- 
dinand learned  so  well  that  he  could  fence  better 
than  his  teacher,  and  as  for  horses,  Ferdinand 
could  ride  horses  that  the  old  man  was  afraid  to 
mount. 

One  day  there  came  to  the  castle  a  very  rich 
nobleman,  named  Don  Pedro.  He  looked  at  the 
handsome  young  Ferdinand  and  was  very  much 
pleased  with  him.  Ferdinand  was  very  polite 
and  had  good  manners,  so  at  last  Don  Pedro 
said  to  him,  "You  seem  like  a  very  fine  lad. 
How  would  you  like  to  come  to  my  palace  and 
learn  to  read  and  write  and  become  a  great  sol- 
dier like  your  father  used  to  be?"  "I  should 
like  it  very  much,"  replied  the  young  Ferdinand. 
I  should  like  to  learn  many  things  and  then  be 
a  soldier;  and  when  I  am  a  man  I  wish  to  go 
to  America  like  Columbus."  "Very  well,"  said 
Don  Pedro;  "come  with  me  and  live  in  my 
palace." 

You  can  imagine  how  happy  the  young  Fer- 
dinand was  to  leave  the  gloomy  old  castle  to  go 
with  Don  Pedro.  And  he  was  still  happier 
when  he  got  there;  for  the  rich  Don  Pedro 
had  a  daughter  named  Isabella.  This  Isabella 
was  as  beautiful  as  the  day  and  as  good  as  she 


r*W 


HOW    DE    SOTO    CAME    TO    THE    FATHER    OF    WATERS 


. 


saw 


was  beautiful.  The  two  children  liked  each 
other,  and  in  the  lonely  afternoons  they  played 
many  games  while  the  sun  cast  its  long  shadows 
on  the  green  grass.  Ferdinand  now  had  lessons. 
He  learned  to  read  and  to  write;  he  went  to  a 
great  school  where  they  taught  him  many  won- 
derful things,  and  every  day  he  grew  taller  and 
stronger,  until  at  last  his  birthday  came  around 
again  and  he  was  nineteen  years  old. 

Then  a  strange  thing  happened.  The  young 
Isabella,  too,  had  grown  up  to  be  a  beautiful  girl, 
with  wonderful  deep  gray  eyes,  and  red  lips  that 
curved  like  a  bow,  and  her  hair  was  as  black 
as  the  darkest  night.  Ferdinand  loved  Isabella 
very  tenderly,  and  Isabella  loved  Ferdinand,  and 
they  wanted  to  marry  and  live  happily  ever  after- 
wards. But  Don  Pedro  was  away  in  America 
and  they  had  to  wait  until  he  came  back. 

At  last  Don  Pedro  came  home,  and  Ferdinand 
went  up  to  him  and  said,  "Don  Pedro,  you  have 
been  very  good  to  me.  You  have  brought  me 
up  like  your  own  son.  Now  I  am  a  man  and 
I  love  your  daughter,  Isabella.  May  I  have  her 
as  my  wife?" 

Now,  Don  Pedro  was  a  greedy  man,  and  he 
wanted  his  daughter  to  marry  a  great,  rich  lord, 


£j£ 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


FOUND         A  M  E  R  I  C 


:CM 


TS* 


and  not  a  poor  young  boy  like  Ferdinand.  So 
he  said,  "No,  I  will  not  let  you  marry  my 
daughter.  You  have  taken  my  food,  but  you 
may  not  take  my  child."  So  Ferdinand  was 
sad  and  did  not  know  what  to  do,  for  he  loved 
Isabella  very  dearly;  but  he  could  not  marry  her 
against  her  father's  wishes. 

Then  Don  Pedro  thought  of  a  very  clever 
plan.  He  said  to  himself,  "If  the  young  Fer- 
dinand and  the  young  Isabella  live  here  in  my 
castle,  their  love  will  grow  until  it  knows  no 
bounds;  and  perhaps  some  day  when  I  am 
away  serving  my  King,  these  young  people  will 
get  married.  That  will  never  do.  But  if  I  can 
get  Ferdinand  away,  then  Isabella  will  forget 
him,  and  will  marry  a  great,  rich  lord  and  live 
in  a  beautiful,  big  castle." 

So  the  clever  Don  Pedro  said  to  Ferdinand, 
"You  have  always  wanted  to  be  a  soldier  and  go 
to  America  like  the  great  Christopher  Columbus. 
Now  is  your  time.  You  are  a  man,  and  can 
gain  honor  and  gold  for  yourself,  and  new  coun- 
tries for  your  King.  You  must  not  think  of 
Isabella;  you  must  think  of  America." 

The  words  of  the  clever  Don  Pedro  moved 
the  heart  of    the  brave  young    lad.      "You   are 


80 


HOW    DE    SOTO    CAME    TO    THE    FATHER    OF    WATERS 


right,    Don  Pedro,"   he  answered;  "I  will  go  to 
America." 

I  think  that  Ferdinand  must  have  been  very 
sad  when  he  had  spoken  these  words;  for  little 
did  he  know  whether,  in  all  his  life,  he  would 
ever  again  look  upon  the  sweet,  beautiful  face  of 
Isabella.  Perhaps  on  his  way  to  America  the 
little  ship  would  strike  a  rock  or  go  down  in  a 
storm,  and  Ferdinand  would  be  drowned.  Or 
perhaps  the  Indians  would  kill  him,  or  he  would 
die  of  a  fever,  or  would  be  cast  into  prison,  with 
nothing  to  eat  or  drink  but  bread  and  water, 
and  the  rats  would  squeak,  and  the  day  would  be 
as  dark  as  the  night.  Perhaps  he  would  be 
thrown  into  such  a  prison  by  some  wicked  man 
and  never  be  set  free  again.  And  even  if  he 
came  back  after  many  hard  years  and  many  great 
perils,  he  might  find  that  Isabella  had  married 
and  forgotten  all  about  him;  so  you  may  well 
believe  that  Ferdinand,  brave  young  man  as  he 
was,  wept  bitter  tears  when  he  said  good-by  to 
the  fair  Isabella. 

And  yet  Ferdinand  was  anxious  to  go.  All 
the  brave  young  Spaniards  wanted  to  go  to 
America  to  fight  the  Indians,  to  teach  them 
about  God,  to  find  gold  for  themselves  and  new 


c 


THE 


■DOB 

MEN 


WHO         FOUND 


AMERICA 


countries  for  the  King.  Every  now  and  then 
some  young  man  would  come  back  from 
America  with  gold,  and  silver,  and  pearls,  and 
rubies,  and  beautiful,  wonderful  birds,  and 
strange  things  that  no  man  had  ever  set  eyes  on 
before;  and  many  were  the  stories  about  the  red 
men  who  lived  in  the  beautiful  land  of  America. 

Well,  at  last  the  ship  was  ready  and  Ferdinand 
sailed  away,  and  for  fifteen  long  years  he  stayed 
in  America.  I  cannot  begin  to  tell  you  of  all 
the  wonderful  sights  he  saw  there,  or  of  the 
many  bold  deeds  that  he  did.  Of  all  the  brave 
men  who  had  gone  to  America,  none  was  braver 
than  Ferdinand  de  Soto.  After  a  while  he  met 
the  Spanish  General,  Pizarro,  who  was  going  to 
Peru  to  conquer  that  country.  Pizarro  told  De 
Soto  about  Peru  and  the  Incas,  of  their  wonder- 
ful temples  and  palaces,  and  how  rich  they  were 
with  all  their  gold  and  silver.  "I  am  going  to 
Peru  to  conquer  that  country,"  he  said  to  De 
Soto,  "and  I  want  you  to  come  with  me  because 
you  are  such  a  brave  man." 

Now,  when  Pizarro  said  these  words  to  De 
Soto  and  told  him  of  all  the  dangers  he  would 
meet  in  that  new  land,  the  young  Ferdinand  was 
not  afraid.      He  loved    danger   as   he   loved   the 


■umnjitD 


82 


HOW    DE    SOTO    CAME    TO    THE    FATHER    OF    WATERS 


mm 


a 


beautiful  Isabella  whom  he  had  left  in  Spain. 
"I  will  go  with  you,  Pizarro,"  said  Ferdinand, 
"and  I  will  be  a  brave  and  true  soldier."  And 
so,  during  all  that  great  war  against  the  Incas  of 
Peru,  Ferdinand  fought  bravely  by  the  side  of 
Pizarro,  the  wisest  and  the  bravest  of  all  the  men 
in  that  army. 

When  Peru  was  conquered,  and  after  many 
other  great  adventures,  Ferdinand  returned  to 
Spain.  Fifteen  years  had  passed  since  he  had 
left.  Now  he  was  no  longer  a  poor  boy,  but  a 
rich  and  powerful  man,  and  everybody  respected 
him  because  of  his  wise  words  and  brave  deeds. 
You  may  be  sure  that  Ferdinand  was  very  happy 
to  see  once  more  the  beautiful  country  in  which 
he  was  born.  However  much  you  may  travel, 
you  are  always  happy  when  at  last  you  come  back 
to  your  own  home.  So  it  was  with  Ferdinand. 
He  almost  cried  with  joy  when  he  saw  again 
the  old,  mossy  castle  where  he  had  played  as  a 
boy.  There  were  the  same  old  trees,  the  same 
long,  dusty  road  where  he  used  to  ride  upon  his 
great  black  horse;  but  most  happy  of  all  was 
Ferdinand  when  he  saw  again  the  beautiful 
Isabella.  She  was  more  lovely  than  ever.  Her 
father,  the  clever  Don  Pedro,  was  now  dead,  and 


ij§ 


THE 


MEN 


W  H  0 


FOUND 


A  M  ERICA 


w\ 

mm* 


r^v 


^inillli^^liAffi,ii 


during  all  of  these  long  years  the  beautiful 
Isabella  had  loved  the  young  Ferdinand.  She 
had  been  very  sad  because  Ferdinand  was  away, 
but  she  never  forgot  him;  and  when  the  great 
lords  of  Spain  had  come  to  her  and  asked  her 
to  marry  them,  she  always  shook  her  head 
and  spoke  sadly.  "No,  my  good  lord,"  she 
answered;  "I  love  the  young  Ferdinand  de  Soto 
who  fights  for  his  King  in  the  land  of  America. 
I  shall  wait  until  he  comes  for  me." 

So  they  were  married,  and  all  the  great  lords 
and  ladies  who  were  invited  to  the  wedding  said 
they  had  never  seen  so  handsome  a  couple. 
There  were  plenty  of  cakes  and  wine  for  all  the 
people  who  came,  and  there  was  a  table  where 
the  poor  could  sit  down  and  eat  as  much  as  they 
wished.  Everybody  laughed  and  cried  for  joy. 
Then  Ferdinand  took  his  beautiful  wife  to  a  great 
palace  in  Seville,  and  there  they  lived  so  happily 
that  the  days  flew  by  like  minutes,  and  even  the 
King  envied  them  because   they  were  so  happy. 

The  brave  Ferdinand  was  very  good  to  his 
beautiful  wife.  He  bought  for  her  all  that  her 
heart  could  desire.  So  it  happened  that  he 
spent  all  the  gold  and  silver  that  he  had  brought 
with  him  from  America.      Then,  one  day,    Fer- 


84 


HOW  DE  SOTO  CAME  TO  THE  FATHER  OF  WATERS 


r^C'~ 


dinand  said  to  his  wife,  "I  shall  go  to  America 
again  to  bring  you  more  gold  and  more  silver 
and  all  the  beautiful  things  that  are  found  in 
that  country."  Ferdinand  said  this  to  make  his 
wife  happy;  but  the  beautiful  Isabella  was  not 
happy.  "I  was  so  sad  when  you  went  away  the 
last  time,"  she  said,  "  I  cannot  bear  to  have  you 
leave  me  again.  Let  me,  I  pray  you,  go  with 
you  and  share  your  dangers." 

So  the  good  Ferdinand  de  Soto  kissed  his 
brave  wife  and  told  her  she  might  go  with  him ; 
and  many  young  lords  of  Spain  wanted  to  go  also. 
They  all  knew  how  bold  and  true  and  wise  Fer- 
dinand was;  so  the  ships  were  filled  with  young 
nobles,  all  dressed  in  bright-colored  clothes. 
After  a  long  journey,  the  ships  came  to  the 
island  of  Hispaniola,  where  there  were  many 
Spaniards.  Here  Ferdinand  told  Isabella  to 
wait  for  him.  "There  are  many  dangers  where 
I  go,"  he  said;  "  but  soon  I  will  come  back  with 
gold  and  silver  and  all  that  the  heart  can  desire." 
Little  did  Ferdinand  know  when  he  kissed  his 
wife  good-by  that  he  would  never  again  see  her 
in  all  this  world.  Boldly  he  sailed  to  the  land 
of  Florida.  Here  he  found  many  wonderful 
things,  but  nowhere  did  he  find  the  great  mines 


85 


M  E  N 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


of  gold  and  silver  that  Cortez  had  seen  in 
Mexico  and  Pizarro  in  Peru.  The  Indians  told 
him  that  gold  and  silver  could  be  found  in  the 
great  wild  country  to  the  West;  so  Ferdinand 
and  his  little  army  marched  toward  the  West. 
Every  day  they  moved  further  and  further  away 
from  their  home,  and  further  and  further  away 
from  the  lonely  Isabella,  who  waited  on  the 
island.  Everywhere  they  looked  for  gold,  but 
the  Indians  always  pointed  toward  the  West, 
where  the  sun  sets.  Always  they  said  to  the 
Spaniards,  "Go  West;  go  far  West  into  the  wild, 
wild  country  and  there  you  will  find  gold." 

In  their  long,  hard  march,  the  brave  Ferdi- 
nand de  Soto  and  his  little  army  had  many  adven- 
tures. Sometimes  the  Indians  were  friendly  and 
would  sit  down  with  the  white  men  about  the 
fire  and  smoke  their  long  pipes.  This  was  a 
sign  among  the  Indians  to  show  that  they  were 
friends  with  the  white  men.  But  sometimes  the 
Indians  were  not  friendly  and  fought  with  the 
Spaniards.  I  do  not  blame  these  Indians  for 
fighting  with  De  Soto.  Before  De  Soto  had 
come  to  this  land,  there  had  been  other  Spaniards 
there,  and  these  men  had  been  very,  very  cruel. 
They  had  killed  many  Indians  and  thrown  their 


iiiimin* 


86 


HOW    DE    SOTO    CAME    TO    THE    FATHER    OF    WATERS 


"1 


.■■:-"■ 


pretty  little  babies  into  the  river,  and  one  day 
they  took  the  Indian  chief  and  cut  his  nose  off. 
Some  of  the  Indians  thought  that  all  Spaniards 
were  cruel  and  wicked,  and  so  they  fought 
against  De  Soto  and  killed  many  of   his  men. 

Then  other  misfortunes  befell  De  Soto.  There 
were  many  great  rivers  to  cross  and  there  were 
no  boats;  so  De  Soto  made  canoes  out  of  the 
trunks  of  trees  and  moved  his  little  band  of 
soldiers  over  on  these.  But  sometimes  the  boats 
were  unsafe,  and  horses  and  men  were  drowned. 
Then,  too,  many  of  the  men  died  of  fever 
because  they  had  to  go  through  great  swamps, 
where  no  white  men  had  ever  been  before,  and 
where  you  sank  into  the  ground  up.  to  your 
waist.  Sometimes  there  was  not  enough  food, 
and  many  of  the  men  grew  sick  and  died; 
so  the  soldiers  grew  afraid  and  begged  to  be 
taken  home.  But  the  bold  De  Soto  said,  "No; 
we  are  all  brave  men  and  we  must  never  turn 
back." 

Then  there  happened  one  of  the  greatest 
things  in  all  the  world.  De  Soto  had  come  to 
America  to  find  gold  and  he  did  not  find  it; 
but  he  found  what  was  much  greater,  a  mighty 
river.      This     river     was     the     greatest    in    all 


c 


THE 


WHO 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


MEN 


America.  It  was  so  large  and  great  that  the 
Indians  called  it  the  Mississippi,  which  means 
in  their  language  the  Father  of  Waters.  This 
river  has  become  the  great  water  way  of 
America;  cities  have  grown  upon  it,  boats  have 
gone  up  and  down  its  wide  waters,  and  more 
good  has  come  from  it  than  from  many  barrels 
of  gold.  And  it  was  Ferdinand  de  Soto  who 
first  found  this  river,  who  first  came  to  the 
Father  of  Waters. 

When  De  Soto  saw  this  Mississippi  River, 
there  were  no  boats  on  it  and  no  cities  near  it. 
It  was  just  a  great,  wide  river,  gleaming  in  the 
sun,  stretching  out  its  wide  arms  toward  the 
north  and  the  south.  But  De  Soto  was  happy. 
He  loved  the  river  as  he  loved  the  beautiful 
Isabella,  who  waited  for  him  so  many,  many 
miles  away.  And  now  Ferdinand  was  willing 
to  turn  back.  The  Indians  were  not  at  all 
friendly,  and  his  army  was  very  little  and  very 
weak.  Many  of  the  soldiers  were  sick  from 
the  fever;  so  sadly  De  Soto  turned  his  back  on 
the  great  river  and  started  his  march  home. 

But  before  he  had  gone  many  miles,  the  great 
Ferdinand  de  Soto  fell  sick.  Every  day  he 
grew  worse,  and  every  day  he  longed  to  see  his 


milium! 


•,«V 


•Ml 


&» 


"  It  was  Ferdinand  de  Soto  who  first  found    this    great  river,   who  first  came 

to  the  Father  of  Waters." 


HOW    DE    SOTO    CAME    TO    THE    FATHER    OF    WATERS 


- 


afar 


beautiful  Isabella  and  the  wonderful  Mississippi 
River  that  he  had  found.  But  the  fever  grew 
worse  and  worse,  and  at  last  the  brave  Ferdinand 
de  Soto  died. 

The  sad  soldiers  buried  him  in  the  forest  and 
then  started  homewards.  But  before  they  had 
gone  many  steps,  one  of  the  soldiers,  who  was 
very  clever,  thought  of  a  plan.  "If  the  Indians 
find  De  Soto's  grave,"  he  said,  "they  will  know 
that  our  brave  leader  is  dead.  Then  they  will 
no  longer  fear  to  attack  us.  Therefore,  let  us 
bury  him  in  the  great  river  that  he  loved  so  well, 
so  that  no  man  can  find  his  grave."  And  this 
they  did.  They  took  up  his  body  and  put  it 
into  the  hollow  of  a  great,  heavy  tree,  and  in 
the  dead  of  night  they  placed  it  in  the  river  and 
let  it  sink.  This  was  almost  four  hundred  years 
ago.  Yet,  perhaps,  even  to-day,  at  the  bottom  of 
the  great  Mississippi  River,  there  lies  the  body 
of  the  brave  Ferdinand  de  Soto,  who,  among 
all  white  men,  was  the  first  to  come  to  the  Father 
of   Waters. 


r-C^ 


89 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


^^«^^'^%jfel 


The  BOY  WHO   LOVED  the  SEA 

MORE  than  three  hundred  years  ago,  in  a 
little  town  on  the  shores  of  the  sea,  there 
lived  an  English  lad  whose  name  was  Walter 
Raleigh.  This  Walter  was  a  very  bright,  happy 
boy,  active  and  brave.  He  loved  all  kinds  of 
sports.  He  loved  to  run  and  fight  and  play. 
He  loved  to  breathe  in  the  cool,  fresh  air,  as 
every  evening  he  ran  along  the  lonely  country 
roads;  but  most  of  all  he  loved  the  sea.  Every 
day  the  young  Walter  could  be  found  in  the 
blue  water,  swimming  near  the  shore,  or  rowing 
in  a  boat,  or  sailing  before  the  wind.  He  loved 
the  sea,  and  was  not  afraid  of  it,  even  in  the 
stormiest  weather. 

Now,  Walter  was  not  the  only  English  boy 
who  loved  the  sea.  All  the  little  English  lads 
loved  it.  The  English  at  this  time  did  not  live 
in  great  cities  as  they  do  to-day.  Many  of  them, 
like  Walter  Raleigh,  lived  in  little  towns  and 
villages  right  on  the  shores  of  the  sea.  They 
could  look  at  the  water  every  day  when  it  was 
blue  and  quiet  and  the  sky  was  clear,  and  also 
when  the  sea  was  rough  and   angry  and    storms 


wimiixt 


90 


THE 


BOY 


WHO 


LOVED 


THE 


'-SpkIu 


■n*f*. 


'&2 


broke  out  from  the  clouds  overhead.  There 
were  many  bold  fishermen  in  those  days,  and 
these  fishermen  would  sometimes  take  the  little 
lads  out  with  them  in  their  boats;  and  so  it 
happened  that  at  this  time  many  of  the  English 
boys  knew  a  great  deal  about  the  sea  and  became 
good  sailors. 

The  young  Walter  used  to  listen  to  long 
stories  about  the  great  English  sailors  who  were 
taking  their  ships  to  all  the  seas;  but  the  stories 
he  loved  most  to  hear  were  of  two  brave  young 
Englishmen,  named  Francis  Drake  and  John 
Hawkins.  These  sailors  hated  the  Spaniards, 
who  were  then  the  strongest  and  most  cruel 
people  in  the  world.  So  these  brave  English 
sailors  used  to  fight  against  the  cruel  Spaniards 
and  lay  in  wait  to  capture  their  vessels  and  all 
the  gold  and  silver  that  was  in  them.  Some- 
times I  think  the  English  sailors  were  just  as 
cruel  as  the  Spaniards  with  whom  they  fought; 
but  they  were  very  brave,  these  English  sailors 
were,  and  when  the  young  Walter  heard  about 
them,  he,  too,  wanted  to  go  to  sea  and  fight  the 
Spaniards  and  take  their  gold. 

But  the  time  had  not  yet  come.  The  young 
Walter  was  only  fourteen  years  old,  and  he  had 


3*i/» 


m 


i 


SEA 


u 


£P: 


y*a* 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


m 


much  yet  to  learn.  A  boy  should  learn  many 
things  before  he  becomes  a  man.  So  the  young 
Walter  was  sent  to  the  great  University  of 
Oxford,  where  he  was  taught  a  great  many  things. 
He  used  to  study  out  of  big  books,  that  were  so 
heavy  that  a  boy  could  hardly  carry  them.  It 
was  a  very  beautiful  place,  this  Oxford,  and 
Walter  met  there  many  lads  from  all  over  Eng- 
land. They  told  him  wonderful  stories  about 
the  great  men  of  England,  the  soldiers  and 
sailors,  the  poets  and  the  great  lords  who  lived 
in  London  and  saw  the  Queen  every  day,  and 
helped  to  rule  the  kingdom.  Walter  longed  to 
grow  up  to  be  a  lord,  so  he,  too,  could  see  the 
Queen  and  help  to  rule  the  kingdom. 

Now,  Walter  loved  to  study;  but,  more  than 
anything  else,  he  wanted  to  go  out  into  the  great 
world  and  be  a  man.  So  at  seventeen  he  left 
the  beautiful  school  at  Oxford  and  went  to 
France,  where  a  great  war  was  going  on.  He 
fought  for  six  years,  doing  many  brave  acts  and 
becoming  a  great  soldier.  Then  he  went  to 
Holland  and  helped  the  people  of  that  country 
to  fight  against  the  Spaniards;  and  everywhere 
he  went  the  people  loved  him,  because  he  was 
so  brave  and  handsome  and  witty. 


92 


THE 


BOY 


WHO 


LOVED 


THE 


SEA 


1 


&& 


•«>*» 


But  Raleigh  loved  the  sea  even  more  than  he 
loved  fighting,  and  when  he  was  twenty-six  years 
of  age,  he  left  the  army  and  went  on  a  ship  to 
America.  He  wanted  to  go  to  Newfoundland, 
which  is  an  island  many  miles  north  of  this 
country,  because  he  thought  he  could  sail 
further  and  find  a  river  or  strait  that  would 
lead  right  through  America  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
If  he  could  find  such  a  river  or  strait,  then  he 
could  sail  right  through  America  to  the  Indies, 
and  do  what  Columbus  tried  to  do  so  many 
years  before. 

Well,  there  isn't  any  such  strait  in  all 
America,  and  so  Raleigh  never  could  have  found 
it;  but  he  did  not  even  get  the  chance.  The 
Spaniards  saw  his  little  vessels  and  sailed  after 
him,  and  he  lost  one  of  his  ships  and  his  other 
ships  were  damaged;  so  the  brave  Raleigh  had 
to  come  home  again. 

Then  there  happened  a  little  thing  that  made 
Walter  Raleigh  the  most  famous  man  in  all 
England.  One  day,  while  he  was  in  London, 
he  saw  the  Queen  walking  along  the  street. 
Now  the  Queen,  whose  name  was  Elizabeth,  was 
very  proud  and  very  fond  of  clothes.  She  had 
over  a  thousand  dresses,  and  many  of  these 
a 


93 


THE 


MEN 


W  H  O 


9SS 


FOUND 

B9BB 


A  M  E  R  I  C 


were  embroidered  with  beautiful  jewels.  I  do 
not  know  how  many  shoes  and  slippers  and 
silk  stockings  she  had,  but  I  do  know  that  she 
had  very  many.  Now,  just  as  Walter  looked 
up,  he  saw  that  the  Queen  stopped  in  front  of  a 
muddy  place  in  the  street.  She  did  not  want  to 
get  her  new  shoes  wet.  The  great  lords  who 
were  with  the  Queen  looked  worried.  They 
did  not  know  what  to  do;  but  young  Walter 
sprang  forward,  took  off  his  handsome  cloak, 
the  most  beautiful  cloak  he  had,  and,  kneeling 
down  before  the  queen,  spread  the  cloak  on  the 
muddy  spot  in  the  road,  so  that  she  could  walk 
on  without  getting  her  shoes  dirty. 

Well,  the  Queen  was  very  much  pleased.  She 
smiled  at  the  handsome  young  man  at  her  feet, 
and,  telling  him  to  rise,  asked,  "What  is  your 
name,  young  man?"  "May  it  please  your 
majesty,"  he  replied,  bowing  very  low,  "my 
name  is  Walter  Raleigh."  "Well,  Master 
Raleigh,"  replied  the  Queen,  "you  have  done  a 
very  gracious  act.  Ask  of  me  what  you  will 
and  you  may  have  it." 

Now,  this  was  the  way  in  which  queens  spoke 
in  those  days  when  they  were  pleased  with  any- 
thing  you  did ;    and  sometimes   the   man  would 


umiwm 


WiLft 


Ji!)"' 


IIU 


f)))'y 


94 


THE 


BOY 


WHO 


...     .  -  ■ 


LOVED 


THE 


SEA 





ask  for  a  suit  of  armor,  and  sometimes  for  a 
horse,  and  sometimes  for  a  hundred  pieces  of 
gold.  But  Walter  Raleigh  asked  for  none  of 
these. 

"May  it  please  your  majesty,"  he  said,  "if  I 
may  have  anything  I  wish,  then  I  ask  for  the 
cloak  upon  which  your  majesty  has  just  deigned 
to  step."  By  this  he  meant  that  it  was  a  great 
honor  for  the  Queen  to  walk  on  his  cloak. 

Now,  Queen  Elizabeth  was  very  much  sur- 
prised. 

"Why,  Master  Raleigh,"  she  answered,  "the 
cloak  is  not  mine  to  give;  it  is  yours  and  has 
always  been  yours." 

"Not  so,"  replied  Walter  Raleigh;  "not  so, 
your  majesty.  The  cloak  was  mine  until  your 
royal  foot  touched  it,  but  in  that  moment  it 
became  yours.  And  this  is  what  I  ask  of  your 
majesty,  that  you  give  to  me  my  cloak  that  I 
may  always  look  on  it  and  remember  this  day." 

So  the  Queen  gave  Raleigh  his  cloak,  but  she 
gave  him  many  other  things  besides.  She  made 
him  a  knight,  which  was  something  that  all  men 
wanted  to  be,  and  she  let  him  have  lands  and 
gold  and  many  beautiful  things.  She  made  it  a 
law  that  no  man  in  all  England  could  sell 
mem 


95 


THE 


MEN 


WHO 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


iv 


broadcloth  or  wines  except  only  Walter  Raleigh, 
which  made  the  young  man  even  richer  than 
before. 

Those  were  good  days  for  Walter  Raleigh,  or, 
as  he  was  now  called,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  He 
was  the  greatest  man  in  all  England.  His 
clothes  were  the  finest  in  the  kingdom.  Even 
the  band  around  his  hat  had  pearls  on  it,  and  he 
wore  diamonds  and  rubies  and  beautiful  feathers, 
and  the  white  ribbons  that  tied  his  shoes  had 
beautiful,  gleaming  jewels  sewed  all  over  them. 
He  even  had  a  suit  of  armor  that  was  made  all 
of  silver.  Indeed,  he  had  so  many  things  that 
I  cannot  remember  them  all. 

Of  course,  Raleigh  loved  to  be  a  great  lord 
among  the  English  and  help  to  rule  the  king- 
dom, but  he  loved  the  sea  even  more.  "Now, 
that  I  am  rich,"  he  said,  "I  wish  to  buy  ships 
and  sail  to  America.  There  I  can  find  a  new 
land  for  England,  and  in  after  years  English- 
men will  bless  the  name  of   Walter  Raleigh." 

So  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  went  to  the  Queen  and 
told  her  of  his  plan.  "Yes,"  said  the  Queen, 
"I  shall  be  glad  if  you  send  your  ships  to 
America  and  find  new  lands  for  England  ;  but 
you  cannot  go  yourself,  Sir  Walter.     I  want  you 


r«W 


Mist-flu   ^^ 


w> 


ww 


"  Walter  sprang  forward  and  spread  his  handsome  cloak  on  the  muddy  spot. 


THE 


BOY 


WHO 


LOVED 


■Sill 


THE 


to  stay  in  England  and  help  me  rule  the  king- 
dom." She  said  this  because  she  was  very  fond 
of  Sir  Walter,  and  was  afraid  he  might  die  on 
the  long  journey,  or  be  killed  by  the  Indians  in 
America.  Now,  the  Queen's  words  made  Sir 
Walter  very  sad.  He  wanted  to  go  with  the 
ships  to  the  new  land,  because  ever  since  he  was 
a  little  boy  he  had  loved  the  sea;  but  he  had 
to  do  as  the  Queen  said,  so  the  ships  sailed 
without  him. 

Now  these  ships  went  to  America  and  came 
home  again.  The  sailors  brought  back  with 
them  a  string  of  white,  gleaming  pearls,  skins  of 
strange  animals,  and  two  Indians,  to  show  Eng- 
lishmen what  red  men  looked  like.  They  told 
Sir  Walter  wonderful  stories  of  the  beauty  of 
the  country,  and  when  Sir  Walter  heard  the 
stories  of  the  sailors,  he  wanted  to  go  to  this 
new  land  more  than  ever;  so  the  next  year  he 
sent  out  more  ships.  Now,  on  these  second 
ships  went  one  hundred  brave  men,  who,  when 
they  saw  the  new  land,  called  it  Virginia.  The 
Indians  told  Ralph  Lane,  the  Governor  of  this 
colony,  many  strange  stories.  They  told  him 
of  a  beautiful  city,  back  in  the  forest,  where  the 
walls  were  made  of   pearl,  and  where  there  was 


SEA 


97 


THE         MEN         WHO 


FOUND        AMERICA 


^|) 


As     <=>-^> 


^jUgg^g^ 


gold  and  silver  in  the  streets.  Now,  we  know 
that  there  was  no  such  city;  but  the  Governor 
believed  the  Indians,  and  instead  of  planting 
corn  for  the  winter,  he  and  his  men  searched 
and  searched  for  the  walls  of  pearl.  Everything 
went  badly  with  the  little  colony.  There  was 
not  enough  food  to  eat,  and  many  of  the  men 
starved  to  death.  The  Indians,  too,  became 
unfriendly,  though  at  first  they  had  been  very 
kind  to  the  white  men.  I  will  tell  you  why 
they  changed.  One  day  an  Indian  stole  a  silver 
cup  from  an  Englishman,  and  instead  of  punish- 
ing the  thief,  the  white  men  burned  all  the  corn 
that  all  the  Indians  had  planted,  and  set  fire  to 
all  their  houses,  till  the  whole  village  was  in 
ashes;  so  the  poor  Indians  had  nothing  to  eat, 
and  no  place  to  sleep,  and  I,  for  one,  don't 
blame  them  for  not  being  friendly  to  the  white 
men. 

Every  day  things  grew  worse,  and  at  last  the 
little  band  of  Englishmen  went  back  to  their  own 
country.  They  had  not  found  gold  or  silver, 
but  they  had  found  what  was  much  better, 
tobacco,  potatoes  and  corn.  These  things  had 
never  been  known  in  England  before,  though 
•     to-day  all  the  people 


umiiit* 


THE 


BOY 


WHO 


LOVED 


THE 


,~^':.~; 


as  the  Americans  do.  Sir  Walter  himself  liked 
tobacco  very  much,  and,  being  a  grown  man,  he 
used  to  smoke  every  day  out  of  a  great,  long 
pipe.  One  day  a  very  funny  thing  happened. 
He  had  hired  a  new  servant,  a  man  who  had 
never  seen  tobacco  in  all  his  life.  Sir  Walter 
sent  him  out  to  bring  in  a  great  pitcher  of  beer, 
and  when  he  came  back  he  saw  smoke  coming 
out  of  his  master's  mouth  and  nose,  and  he 
thought  that  he  must  be  on  fire.  So  what  do 
you  think  he  did?  He  poured  the  pitcher  of 
beer  over  Sir  Walter's  head  to  put  out  the  fire. 
Of  course  the  fire  did  not  go  out,  but  all  of  Sir 
Walter's  clothes  were  spoiled;  but  Sir  Walter 
had  more  clothes,  and  so  he  only  laughed. 

The  ships  which  Sir  Walter  had  sent  to 
America  all  came  back,  but  he  did  not  lose  hope, 
and  after  a  while  he  sent  out  a  third  colony  to 
the  new  land.  In  this  colony  there  were  one 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  seventeen  women,  and 
eleven  little  children,  and  Captain  John  White 
was  their  Governor.  But  the  people  of  this 
colony,  too,  were  cruel  to  the  Indians,  and  so, 
of   course,  the  Indians  were  unfriendly  to  them. 

After  a  little  while  all  their  food  gave  out,  and 
as  the  Indians  would   not   give   them  corn,  they 


m 


SEA 


O 


;;\; 


*■'  -I 


wn 


THE 


MEN         WHO         FOUND         A  M  E  R  I  C 


Sfflftl 


?m% 


asked  Captain  White  to  go  to  England  and  come 
back  with  more  food.  Now,  Captain  White  did 
not  want  to  go  on  this  long  journey.  His  little 
granddaughter,  the  first  English  child  ever  born 
in  America,  was  only  a  few  weeks  old,  and  Cap- 
tain White  didn't  wish  to  leave  her;  but  if  he 
did  not  go  back,  the  people  would  die  of  hun- 
ger.    So  one  fine  day  he  set  sail  for  England. 

Now,  at  this  time,  there  was  a  great  war 
going  on  in  England  against  the  Spaniards,  and 
all  English  ships  had  to  be  used  in  the  fight; 
so  Captain  White's  vessels  were  taken  from  him, 
and  he  could  not  go  back  to  his  little  grand- 
daughter, Virginia  Dare,  nor  to  the  men  and 
women  and  children  he  had  left  in  Virginia.  It 
was  three  years  before  he  could  get  ships  to  cross 
the  great  ocean,  and  when  he  did  make  the  long 
journey,  the  people  he  had  left  so  long  ago  had 
all  been  lost.  What  became  of  them  no  man 
ever  knew.  Perhaps  they  died  of  hunger  or 
were  killed  by  the  Indians.  It  was  all  so  many, 
many  years  ago,  and  the  people  that  were  alive 
then  are  now  all  dead;  so  we  shall  never  know 
what  did  become  of  the  little  band  whom  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  sent  to  America,  or  of  the  dear 
little  baby,  Virginia  Dare. 


<«v 


&y 


im 


t.m 


r'.VSM 


100 


THE         BOY 


WHO 


LOVED 


THE 


SEA 


After  a  few  years,  Raleigh,  who  still  loved  the 
sea,  got  the  Queen  to  let  him  leave  England. 
This  made  him  very  happy,  and,  buying  some 
ships,  he  sailed  across  the  ocean  to  South 
America.  Here  he  landed  in  a  country  called 
Guiana,  not  a  rich  country,  but  where  there  were 
many  Indians.  Of  course,  these  Indians  told 
him  wonderful  stories,  and,  of  course,  these 
stories  were  not  true.  A  tribe  of  Indians,  they 
said,  who  lived  up  the  river,  were  so  rich  that 
they  sprinkled  gold  dust  on  their  bodies;  and 
back  in  the  forest  were  other  tribes  who  had 
eyes  in  their  shoulders  and  mouths  in  their  chests. 
Raleigh  believed  these  foolish  stories,  because  in 
those  days  people  were  not  so  wise  as  they  are 
to-day,  and  so  he  sailed  up  the  great  river  in 
search  of   these  riches. 

Well,  as  there  was  no  gold  or  wonderful  city, 
of  course,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  could  not  find 
them,  though  he  hunted  a  long  time,  and  so, 
after  a  few  months,  he  went  back  to  England  a 
very  sad  man. 

Now,  as  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  grew  older,  this 
is  what  happened.  Queen  Elizabeth,  as  queens 
sometimes  do,  grew  tired  of  her  friend,  and  one 
day    poor   Sir    Walter   was   thrown   into   prison. 


THE         MEN         WHO        FOUND         AMERICA 


I 


Of  course,  the  Queen  let  him  out  again,  but,  by 
this  time,  everyone  had  turned  against  him. 
Now,  many  men  hated  Sir  Walter  because  of 
his  great  pride;  so,  when  Queen  Elizabeth  died, 
and  a  new  King,  King  James,  ruled  over  Eng- 
land, the  King  heard  many  stories  against  Sir 
Walter.  He  believed  these  stories,  and  so,  for 
the  second  time,  Sir  Walter  was  put  in  prison. 
Here  he  stayed  for  twelve  sad  years.  That 
was  a  long  time  to  stay  in  prison;  but,  I  sup- 
pose, Sir  Walter  would  have  been  there  even 
longer  had  he  not  thought  of  a  plan  by  which 
to  get  out. 

You  see,  Sir  Walter  knew  that  King  James 
was  very  fond  of  gold;  so  he  sent  a  man  to 
the  King  to  say,  "In  South  America  is  much 
gold.  If  your  majesty  will  let  me  out  of  prison, 
I  will  go  to  that  country,  and  after  a  short  time 
will  return  to  England  with  my  ships  full  of 
gold."  This  plan  pleased  King  James  very 
much,  so  he  let  Sir  Walter  out  of  prison,  and 
gave  him  ships,  and  sent  him  to  South  America. 

But  we  cannot  always  do  what  we  promise 
to  do;  and  though  Sir  Walter  tried  very  hard,  he 
could  not  find  any  gold  in  South  America. 
Instead,   he    became  very    sick,  and  some    great 


us 


iiiimiKB 


THE         BOY        WHO         LOVED         THE        SEA 


u 


mm 
•mMi 
mm 


saw*  i  i 


<««- 


Spanish  vessels,  seeing  how  small  his  ships 
were,  chased  him,  and  forced  him  to  return 
home.  Poor  Sir  Walter  Raleigh! — you  may  well 
believe  that  he  was  sad  at  the  thought  of  meet- 
ing his  angry  King. 

And  the  King  was  angry  when  he  found  that 
Sir  Walter  had  not  brought  the  promised  gold. 
He  threw  him  into  prison,  and  then  a  little  later 
ordered  his  head  to  be  cut  off.  By  this  you  see 
how  very  angry  the  King  was. 

Now,  Sir  Walter  was  always  brave.  He  was 
brave  as  a  little  boy,  brave  as  a  soldier,  and  brave 
when  he  came  to  die.  Touching  the  edge  of 
the  axe  that  was  to  cut  off  his  head,  he  said, 
"This  is  a  sharp  medicine,  but  a  sound  cure  for 
all  diseases."  By  this  he  meant  that  after  death 
his  troubles  would  all  be  over. 

And  so  they  were.  Though  the  cruel  King 
James  cut  off  the  head  of  this  brave  man,  he 
could  not  make  people  forget  him.  Even  to-day 
we  remember  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  We  have  a 
city  named  Raleigh  in  memory  of  him,  and  in 
all  parts  of  our  country  the  children  are  told  of 
the  brave  little   English   boy  who  loved  the  sea. 


103 


THE        MEN        WHO        FOUND        AMERICA 


^M^JU^^^st^ 


9 


THE   LITTLE   RED   PRINCESS 
OF   THE   FOREST 

THIS  is  the  story  of  a  princess — not  a  fairy 
princess  with  golden  locks  and  long,  silken 
gowns,  but  a  real  princess.  You  might  have 
called  her  a  savage  if  you  had  seen  her  running 
barefooted  about  in  the  forest,  because  she  was 
just  a  little,  black-haired  Indian  girl,  who  played 
with  other  little  Indians  in  the  woods  of  Vir- 
ginia. Yet  this  little  girl  was  a  princess  and 
her  father  was  a  king. 

Now,  the  name  of  this  princess  was  Pocahon- 
tas. It  is  a  large  name  for  such  a  little  girl; 
and  yet,  though  it  is  three  hundred  years  since  she 
lived,  no  one  has  forgotten  her  name.  No  one 
has  forgotten  the  story  of  the  beautiful  red  prin- 
cess who  lived  in  Virginia,  and  this  is  the 
reason  why: 

In  those  days  Virginia  was  very  different  from 
what  it  is  to-day.  There  were  no  cities,  and  rail- 
roads, and  houses,  and  street  cars;  no  theatres, 
or  parks,  or  schools.  There  were  no  white 
people  there  at  all.     It  was  all  a  wild  country, 


THE     LITTLE     RED     PRINCESS     OF     THE     FOREST 


1) 


with  great  rivers,  and  forests  where  no  roads  led, 
and  all  the  people — the  men  and  women,  the 
little  boys  and  girls,  even  the  tiny,  dear  little 
babies — were  Indians. 

Well,  as  the  years  went  on,  little  Pocahontas 
had  her  twelfth  birthday.  She  was  so  beautiful, 
and  so  very  good  and  kind,  that  all  the  Indians 
loved  her.  The  women  embroidered  her  skirts 
with  bright-colored  porcupine  quills,  and  with 
feathers  and  beads,  and  the  men  brought  her 
presents  of  beautiful  birds  and  little  gray  squir- 
rels which  they  trapped  in  the  forest.  But  the 
King,  her  father,  loved  her  most.  Whenever  he 
came  back  from  a  journey,  his  first  question  was 
always,  "Where  is  Pocahontas?"  And  then  he 
patted  her  on  the  head  and  gave  her  some  shells 
which  the  Indians  used  for  money.  There  was 
nothing  in  the  world  that  the  King  would  not 
do  for  his  little  daughter. 

Now,  Pocahontas  had  never  seen  a  white  man. 
She  thought  that  all  men  were  red  like  her 
father  and  the  other  brave  Indians  with  whom 
she  lived.  You  see,  there  never  had  been  any 
white  men  in  her  part  of  the  country.  The 
brave,  cruel  Spaniards  had  gone  to  Cuba  and 
Florida   and  Mexico  and  countries  to  the  south, 


— 


_ 


■ateBfamaoi 


THE 


MEN 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


•M  ^sMfhSm^i^k^A 


and  the  French  explorers,  who  were  very  brave 
too,  had  gone  north  to  Canada  and  to  the  great 
St.  Lawrence  River.  The  English,  to  be  sure, 
had  sent  men  to  Virginia,  but  they  had  only 
looked  around  the  coast  and  had  not  gone  into 
the  forest.  So  Pocahontas  and  her  father,  King 
Powhatan,  had  never  seen  a  white  man  in  all 
their  lives. 

But  one  day  the  soldiers  of  the  King  brought 
into  the  village  a  prisoner,  whose  hands  and  feet 
were  tied  with  thongs.  This  prisoner  was  a  tall 
man,  with  light  hair  and  blue  eyes,  and,  what 
was  even  more  wonderful,  with  skin  as  white  as 
milk.  The  Indians  shook  their  tomahawks  in 
front  of  his  face,  and  made  a  motion  with  their 
long  knives  as  though  they  were  going  to  cut  off 
his  head,  but  the  man  only  laughed  and  he  did 
not  show  any  fear.  Now,  the  Indians  like  a 
brave  man,  and  when  their  prisoner  laughed  at 
their  knives,  they  thought  he  must  be  a  very 
brave  man  indeed.  And  little  Pocahontas,  who 
was  watching  from  the  door  of  her  father's  wig- 
wam, which  is  the  Indian  name  for  a  little  tent, 
thought  him  brave  too.  She  liked  this  white 
man,  who  was  not  afraid  of  the  tomahawks  of 
the  bravest  warriors,  and  she  was  sorry  when  she 


UliiUMt 


106 


THE     LITTLE     RED     PRINCESS     OF     THE     FOREST 


K 


-'  p3S 


S^W 


saw  how  the  thongs  of  deer-skin,  with  which  he 
was  bound,  cut  into  his  white  skin;  so  she 
asked  her  father  to  have  the  Indians  unbind  their 
prisoner,  and  this  they  did. 

Now,  the  name  of  this  white  man  who  laughed 
at  the  tomahawks  was  Captain  John  Smith.  He 
was  one  of  the  bravest  of  all  the  brave  English- 
men who  came  to  America  so  long  ago.  He 
had  been  a  soldier  in  England,  and  when  he  was 
very  young  had  gone  to  fight  against  the  Turks, 
who  were  making  war  on  the  Christians.  The 
young  John  Smith  was  so  very  brave  in  this  war 
that  when  the  English  wanted  men  to  win  the 
new  country  of  Virginia  for  their  good  King 
James,  they  chose  him  for  their  captain. 

I  do  not  think  that  anybody  ever  had  more 
trouble  or  ran  into  more  danger  than  did  this 
brave  gentleman.  It  was  not  easy  to  cross  the 
ocean  in  those  days.  The  little  sail-boats  were 
often  wrecked,  and  then  there  were  cruel  pirates 
who  would  catch  sailors  and  throw  them  into 
the  sea.  And  even  when  John  Smith  and  his 
little  band  of  men  sailed  up  the  James  River  in 
Virginia,  and  made  the  new  city  of  Jamestown, 
their  troubles  were  not  over.  They  did  not  have 
enough  to  eat,  and  it  was  hard  to  get  any  food 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


r^T 


ml 


^rijl 


from  the  unfriendly  Indians.  Besides,  the  men 
who  had  come  with  Captain  Smith  were  not 
used  to  work.  They  wanted  to  find  gold  and 
silver  and  become  rich  right  away,  and  they  did 
not  want  to  plant  corn,  and  build  houses,  and 
barns,  and  forts. 

So  you  may  well  believe  that  Captain  Smith 
had  enough  trouble.  When  his  people  did  not 
have  food  and  were  hungry,  and  when  some  of 
them  fell  sick  and  died,  as  they  did,  then  they 
all  complained.  They  even  cried  to  go  home 
to  England.  They  had  much  trouble  with  the 
Indians,  too;  and  at  last,  as  I  told  you  before, 
Captain  John  Smith  and  some  of  his  men  were 
captured,  and  Smith  was  bound  and  taken  to 
King  Powhatan's  village.  So  you  can  well 
believe  that  poor  John  Smith  was  very  happy 
when,  to  please  Pocahontas,  the  King  ordered 
him  to  be  untied. 

Now,  the  Indians  were  curious  to  know  all 
about  the  white  men.  They  spent  long  hours 
in  front  of  their  wigwams  listening  to  the 
strange  stories  of  Captain  Smith.  He  wrote  a 
few  words  on  a  sheet  of  paper,  and  when  the 
Indians  saw  how  the  white  men  in  Jamestown 
could  read  these  little  black  marks  on  the  paper, 


,£r?f 


108 


iiiiimiitH 


THE     LITTLE     RED     PRINCESS 


OF     THE     FOREST 


1 


they  were  filled  with  wonder,  for  the  Indians 
had  no  schools,  and  could  not  read  or  write. 
"It  is  strange,"  they  said,  "our  prisoner  can 
talk  to  a  man  a  hundred  miles  away.  He  must 
be  a  great  chief  and  a  friend  of  the  gods." 
Then  Captain  Smith  showed  the  Indians  his 
compass.  He  told  them  that  with  this  little 
needle  he  could  never  be  lost  in  the  forest;  even 
where  the  woods  were  dense,  he  could  find  his 
way  back  to  the  camp-fire.  Now,  you  and  I 
know  that  the  needle  of  a  compass  points  always 
to  the  north;  but  the  Indians  did  not  know  this, 
and  they  thought  it  was  magic  that  told  Captain 
John  Smith  the  way.  So  they  grew  afraid  of 
this  white  man;  but  Pocahontas  was  not  afraid. 
The  days  passed,  till  one  morning  the  King, 
Powhatan,  called  his  warriors  together  to  see 
what  they  wished  to  do  with  their  captive.  They 
all  sat  around  a  great  camp-fire,  and  each  man 
smoked  his  long  pipe.  Pocahontas  was  not 
there,  because  no  woman  was  allowed  at  these 
meetings;  but  you  may  be  sure  that  she  was 
very  anxious  to  hear  what  they  would  do  with 
the  white  man.  After  a  while,  one  of  the  Indian 
chiefs — he  was  a  very  old  man,  with  a  great  scar 
running  across  his  forehead — spoke: 
m 


■■->'■■, 


vsmi 


109 


MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


[^'iindmsM' 


"I  know  it  is  the  custom  of  our  tribe,  oh, 
King  Powhatan,  to  kill  the  men  who  are  taken 
in  battle;  but  this  man  is  not  like  other  men. 
He  is  brave;  he  can  talk  to  his  friends  a  hundred 
miles  away;  he  speaks  with  magic  to  the  stars. 
So  I  say  send  him  back  to  his  people." 

When  the  man  with  the  scar  had  finished 
speaking,  there  was  a  low  murmur,  which  showed 
that  many  of  the  Indians  were  pleased.  But 
there  were  others  who  did  not  like  Captain 
Smith  and  were  afraid  to  keep  him  alive.  A 
little  old  man,  who  was  very  thin,  and  had  a 
very  squeaky  voice,  arose  and  spoke: 

"Oh,  King  Powhatan,  it  is  not  safe  to  let  this 
man  live.  He  is  the  friend  of  the  devils,  or 
how  else  could  he  talk  with  the  stars,  or  by  little 
marks  speak  to  his  friends  a  hundred  miles  away? 
Besides,  it  is  the  custom  of  our  tribe  that  we 
kill  all  prisoners.  Therefore,  I  say,  oh,  King, 
let  the  white  man  die." 

And  so  it  was  agreed.  I  think  that  in  his 
heart  the  good  King  Powhatan  would  have  liked 
to  save  Captain  Smith,  but  he  would  not  go 
against  the  wishes  of  his  chiefs.  You  may  well 
believe  that  Pocahontas  was  very  sad  when  she 
heard    that    her    friend    must    die.      During   the 


110 


THE     LITTLE     RED     PRINCESS     OF     THE     FORE 


-  V- 


long  summer  days,  when  he  had  been  a  prisoner 
in  the  village,  she  had  grown  very  fond  of  him. 
He  had  told  her  wonderful  stories  of  England, 
the  great  country  across  the  sea,  and  of  the 
little  white  boys  and  girls  who  lived  there,  and 
of  the  schools  they  went  to  and  the  games  they 
played;  and  now  the  man  who  had  been  so 
kind  to  her  must  die  a  cruel  death,  far  from  the 
country  he  loved. 

All  day  she  walked  in  the  forest,  trying  to 
think  of  some  plan  by  which  she  could  save  his 
life;  but  when  night  came  and  she  returned 
sadly  to  camp,  she  had  not  yet  thought  of  a  plan. 
Now,  as  she  neared  the  village, she  met  a  young 
brave  dressed  in  his  war-paint.  "Hurry,  oh 
Princess,"  he  said,  "for  the  white  man  is  to  die 
at  sundown." 

Poor  Pocahontas!  She  ran  even  faster  than 
the  young  brave,  and  reached  her  father's  wig- 
wam just  in  time  to  see  John  Smith,  bound 
hand  and  foot,  stretched  on  the  ground,  his  head 
resting  on  a  big,  flat  stone.  All  the  Indians 
made  way  for  the  Princess  as  she  pushed  her  way 
to  the  front,  and  then,  as  a  warrior  raised  a 
great  club  to  dash  out  the  Englishman's  brains, 
she  fell  on  her  knees  and  threw  her  arms  around 


WM 


111 


MEN 


WHO 


FOUND 


A  M  E  R  I  C 


i£ 


his  neck.  If  the  club  fell  on  Captain  Smith,  it 
must  kill  her  too.  From  her  knees  she  begged 
her  father,  the  King,  to  give  to  her  the  life  of 
the  white  man. 

Powhatan  and  all  the  Indian  chiefs  loved  a 
brave  act.  They  looked  at  the  little  girl  kneel- 
ing before  them,  ready  to  die  to  save  her  white 
friend.  So  the  King  said,  "  Let  the  white  man 
go  free."  And  the  Indians  all  grunted,  which 
meant  that  they,  too,  were  really  glad. 

So  John  Smith  rose  from  the  ground  a  free 
man,  and  was  sent  with  twelve  Indians  back  to 
Jamestown.  But  this  was  not  the  only  time  that 
the  little  Red  Princess  saved  the  life  of  her 
friend.  The  Jamestown  settlement  was  in  dan- 
ger of  attacks  by  bad  Indians,  and  more  than 
once  Pocahontas  came  through  the  great  forest 
at  night  to  warn  Captain  Smith  that  his  enemies 
were  coming.  Then,  too,  she  asked  her  father, 
the  King,  to  give  corn  to  the  English,  and  often 
the  little  village  would  have  starved  but  for  the 
Little  Red  Princess  of  the  Forest,  who  sent  them 
corn. 

One  day,  when  Pocahontas  came  to  James- 
town, she  found  that  Captain  Smith  had  gone 
back  to  England  to  be  cured  of  a  wound.    This 


112 


THE     LITTLE     RED     PRINCESS     OF     THE     FOREST 


made  her  very  sad,  but  she  still  went  often  to 
Jamestown  to  hear  news  of  her  friend.  At  last 
one  day  she  was  told  that  he  was  dead.  After 
that  the  Little  Red  Princess  stayed  in  the  forest. 
She  did  not  go  then  very  often  to  the  English  vil- 
lage, though  she  still  sent  presents  of  corn  to 
the  white  people. 

But  John  Smith  was  not  dead,  and  Pocahon- 
tas was  to  meet  her  good  friend  once  more. 
Not  in  the  great,  silent  forests  was  she  to  see 
him,  nor  yet  in  the  little  city  of  Jamestown,  but 
in  England,  far  across  the  sea.  And  this  is  how 
the  Little  Red  Princess  of  the  Forest  happened 
to  go  to  England. 

In  the  village  of  Jamestown  there  lived  a 
young  Englishman  named  John  Rolfe.  Now 
Rolfe  was  not  a  prince,  and  in  stories  only  the 
prince  can  marry  the  princess;  but  a  real  red 
princess  is  different  from  a  fairy  one,  and  so, 
after  some  years,  Pocahontas  and  John  Rolfe 
were    married. 

The  wedding  was  in  the  little  church  at 
Jamestown,  because  Pocahontas  had  become  a 
Christian,  and  you  may  well  believe  that  all  the 
good  Indians  came  to  see  their  beautiful  prin- 
cess married. 


r 


THE 


MEN 


WHO 


FOUND 


A  M  E  R  I  C 




Well,  after  some  time,  John  Rolfe  and  his 
young  wife  crossed  the  ocean  to  England,  and 
thus  it  was  that  in  the  great  city  of  London 
Pocahontas  met  her  old  friend,  John  Smith,  once 
more.  You  may  well  believe  that  she  was  glad 
to  see  him  again  after  so  many  years,  and  that 
they  had  many  happy  times  together.  It  soon 
happened  that  everyone  in  London  was  talking 
about  Pocahontas.  The  London  people  had 
never  seen  a  red  princess  before,  especially  a 
princess  who  had  done  so  many  brave  deeds,  and 
saved  the  lives  of  so  many  Englishmen.  So  all 
London  wished  to  honor  her.  The  King  and 
the  Queen  sent  for  Pocahontas,  and  she  was  often 
at  their  court,  where  all  the  great  lords  and 
ladies  loved  her  and  gave  her  beautiful  presents. 

But  at  last  the  time  came  for  John  Rolfe  to 
go  back  to  Jamestown.  Pocahontas  was  very 
sad  at  the  thought  of  leaving  England  and  all 
her  kind  English  friends,  and  she  was  sad,  too, 
because  her  little  son,  who  had  been  born  in 
England,  must  take  the  long,  rough  journey. 
But  their  plans  were  all  made,  and  the  good  ship 
was  ready  to  sail. 

Then  it  was,  at  the  last  moment,  that  poor 
Pocahontas  was  taken  ill.     All  the  great  doctors 


hliisfJH! 


114 


THE     LITTLE     RED     PRINCESS     OF     THE     FOREST 


.-.■■  :•.■'■'■ 

- 


r&Sq 


of  London  came  to  see  her,  but  their  medicines 
were  of  no  use,  and,  after  a  few  days  of  suffer- 
ing, she  died.  John  Rolfe  buried  her  in  Eng- 
land, among  the  white  people  there;  but  I  like 
to  think  of  her  best  in  the  great,  silent  woods  of 
Virginia,  where,  for  so  long,  she  had  lived  with 
her  Indian  tribe,  and  where  she  was  called  Poca- 
hontas, the  Little  Red  Princess  of   the  Forest. 


n'z  !v 


115 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


ii^: 


THE    ENGLISHMAN    WHO 
SAILED    FOR    THE    DUTCH 

THIS  is  the  story  of  the  man  who  started 
New  York,  the  greatest  city  in  all  America. 
It  all  happened  three  hundred  years  ago,  at  a 
time  when  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  was  still  in  prison, 
and  when  the  Little  Red  Princess  of  the  Forest, 
way  down  in  Virginia,  was  saving  the  life  of 
Captain  John  Smith.  And  this  is  the  way  it 
happened: 

In  a  little  English  village  there  lived  a  boy 
named  Henry  Hudson.  This  boy,  like  so  many 
other  English  lads,  loved  the  sea,  and  he  always 
wanted  to  be  a  sailor.  There  were  many  games 
that  Henry  could  play,  but  he  was  never  really 
happy  except  when  he  was  out  on  the  ocean 
sailing  his  boat,  and  learning  how  to  keep  it 
safe  in  the  wind  and  storm.  He  used  to  watch 
the  rough  fishermen  as  they  steered  their  boats 
and  cared  for  their  sails  in  the  rough  weather, 
and  soon  there  was  nothing  about  a  boat  that  the 
young  Henry  did  not  know  just  as  well  as  a 
man. 


THE     ENGLISHMAN     WHO     SAILED     FOR     THE     DUTCH 


Well,  while  Henry  was  still  a  boy,  he  went 
to  sea  to  learn  more  about  the  great  ocean.  He 
did  not  run  away  secretly,  but  he  went  to  the 
captain  of  a  vessel  and  told  him  that  he  would 
work  as  a  sailor  for  a  few  years  without  any  pay, 
so  that  he  could  learn  all  about  boats.  The  cap- 
tain looked  the  young  Henry  over  from  head  to 
foot,  and  he  thought  to  himself,  "Here  is  a  fine, 
strong  lad.  He  will  make  a  good  sailor."  So 
he  said  to  Henry,  "You  stay  with  me  until  you 
are  twenty-one,  and  I  will  teach  you  everything 
about  a  ship  and  make  a  good  sailor  out  of 
you." 

So  Henry  Hudson  stayed  with  the  captain, 
and  every  day  he  learned  more  about  the  ways 
of  the  sea  and  how  to  handle  a  boat.  He 
studied  in  books,  too,  and  soon  knew  all  about 
the  seas  of  the  world,  and  all  the  countries  that 
any  white  man  had  ever  visited.  He  was  now  a 
captain  of  a  ship  himself,  and  everybody  was 
glad  to  sail  on  his  boat,  because  they  knew  that 
Henry  Hudson  was  a  brave  sailor,  and  was  not 
afraid  even  in  the  roughest  sea. 

In  those  days  there  were  great  companies  who 
sent  out  ships  to  all  parts  of  the  world  to  trade 
with   the   different    nations.     In    England    there 


117 


THE 


MEN 


WHO        FOUND        AMERICA 


;'•■-■■■. 


was  a  company  of  this  kind,  called  the  Muscovy 
Company.  Now,  this  company  heard  about  the 
wise  captain,  Henry  Hudson,  and  they  wanted 
him  to  sail  a  ship  for  them  and  find  out  new 
countries,  and  sell  English  goods  to  the  strange 
people  he  met  in  the  new  lands;  so  Hudson 
made  several  voyages  for  them.  He  sailed  far 
north,  and  every  day  the  weather  got  colder  and 
colder;  for,  as  everybody  knows,  if  you  go 
south  it  gets  warmer,  and  if  you  go  north  it 
gets  colder.  Well,  after  a  while  it  got  so  cold 
that  the  sailors  almost  froze.  The  ropes  of  the 
ships  and  even  the  sails  were  covered  with  ice, 
and  in  the  sea  the  sailors  saw  great  floating 
mountains  of  frozen  snow.  Now,  these  moun- 
tains are  called  icebergs,  and  they  are  very 
beautiful,  especially  when  the  sun  shines  upon 
them,  and  the  white  snow  glistens,  and  the  clear 
ice  turns  a  wonderful  shade  of   green. 

But  the  icebergs,  although  very  beautiful,  are 
also  very  dangerous.  They  float  around  in  the 
sea,  and  if  they  strike  a  ship,  then  that  ship  is 
broken  to  pieces  the  way  a  nut  is  crushed  in  a 
nut-cracker.  So  every  day  the  voyage  in  the 
north  became  more  dangerous,  and  some  of 
Hudson's  men  wanted   to   go   home;    but  their 


118 


THE     ENGLISHMAN     WHO     SAILED     FOR     THE     DUTCH 


(^ 


■  ■ 

- 


SSW 


captain  would  not  return.  "I  will  not  go  back," 
he  said,  "until  I  have  done  what  I  was  sent  to 
do,"  and  he  kept  on  his  voyage.  So  when 
Henry  Hudson  reached  England,  he  had  sailed 
further  north  than  any  man  had  sailed  in  all  the 
world  up  to  that  time. 

Now,  when  the  people  of  Europe  heard  of 
how  Hudson  had  sailed  further  north  than  any- 
body in  all  the  world,  they  all  wanted  him  to 
sail  their  ships.  Holland,  at  this  time,  was  a 
country  of  sailors,  and  here,  too,  was  a  company 
like  the  Muscovy  Company,  only  it  was  called 
the  Dutch  East  India  Company.  Well,  the  men 
who  owned  this  company  were  always  looking 
for  brave  captains;  so,  when  they  heard  of 
Henry  Hudson,  they  sent  for  him  and  said,  "We 
are  all  Dutchmen  and  you  are  an  Englishman; 
but,  as  you  are  a  brave  and  a  wise  sailor,  we 
want  you  to  sail  our  ships  for  us."  And  they 
gave  him  money,  and  sent  him  off  in  a  ship 
called  the  Half  Moon,  with  twenty  sailors,  some 
of  them  Englishmen  and  some  Dutchmen;  and 
thus  it  was  that  the  bold  Englishman,  Henry 
Hudson,  sailed  for  the  Dutch. 

Again  Hudson  sailed  towards  the  north,  but 
this  time  it  was  colder  even  than  before,  and  the 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


FOUND 


A  M  E  R  I  C 


sea  was  so  full  of  ice  that  his  sailors  grew  afraid, 
even  more  afraid  than  his  first  sailors  had  been. 
You  see  the  ice  was  really  very,  very  dangerous. 
If  a  boat  got  shut  in  the  ice,  you  could  not 
move  it,  no  matter  how  hard  you  tried;  and  if 
it  got  caught  between  two  great  icebergs,  it  was 
squeezed  until  its  masts  and  sides  were  broken 
to  pieces.  So  I  am  not  surprised  that  the  sailors 
grew  frightened,  for  I  should  have  been  fright- 
ened if  I  were  there,  and  I  think  you  would  have 
been  frightened  too.  And  they  were  frightened. 
They  said  they  would  throw  Hudson  overboard 
unless  he  steered  south;  so  Hudson  had  to  tell 
the  pilot  to  turn  the  boat,  and  he  sailed  south 
along  the  coast  of  America. 

Now,  I  have  told  you  before  how  in  those  days 
all  sailors  believed  in  a  short  cut  between  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  and  the  Pacific  Ocean;  so  it  is 
not  strange  that  Hudson  believed  in  this  short 
cut,  too,  and  wanted  to  find  it.  Besides,  Captain 
Smith,  who  was  a  friend  of  Hudson,  had  told 
him  that  there  was  such  a  short  cut.  The  name 
that  was  given  to  this  short  cut  was  the  North- 
west Passage,  although  nobody  had  ever  seen  it, 
and,  in  truth,  there  wasn't  any  to  see.  Well,  as 
Hudson  was  sailing  along  the  coast,  he  came  to 


UlUUllttt 


"  Henry  Hudson  got  many  furs  from  the  Indians  and  made  them  all  his  friends 


THE     ENGLISHMAN     WHO     SAILED     FOR     THE     DUTCH 


.■'-:- 


■■maoBH 


__ 


a  great  stream,  which  he  thought  must  be  the 
great  Northwest  Passage  that  all  brave  sailors 
were  in  search  of;  so  he  turned  his  boat  and 
sailed  up  the  river,  which  was  really  the  Hudson 
River,  the  river  that  flows  through  the  State  of 
New  York,  and  does  not  go  anywhere  near  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  The  water  was  clear  and  fresh, 
and  the  longer  Hudson  sailed,  the  shallower  it 
became,  until,  after  he  had  gone  about  a  hundred 
miles,  his  boat  could  go  no  further,  so  he  had  to 
turn  around  once  more  and  sail  back.  His 
men  landed  on  the  beautiful  green  banks  of  the 
river  and  rested  from  their  hard   journey. 

So  it  was  that  the  Hudson  River  was  found  by 
Henry  Hudson,  and  the  great  city  of  New  York 
was  founded  by  Dutchmen.  You  see,  though 
Henry  Hudson  was  born  in  England,  he  sailed 
for  the  Dutch,  and  that  gave  the  Dutch  the  right 
to  all  the  land  he  found.  Well,  they  liked  this 
river,  these  home-loving  Dutchmen,  and  they 
liked,  too,  its  beautiful  harbor,  so  they  sent  out 
from  Holland  ships  with  people  to  build  houses 
and  forts  and  trading  stores  for  the  Indians.  Here 
they  also  gave  the  Indians  hatchets  and  knives 
and  little  glass  beads  of  many  colors,  and  got 
from    the    red    men     soft,    beautiful    furs;    and 


itep 


m 


121 


THE 


MEN 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


i^. 


soon  there  was  a  little  village  here,  which  the 
Dutch  called  New  Amsterdam,  after  their  own 
city  of  Amsterdam  in  Holland.  For  over  fifty 
years  they  held  this  little  city,  and  then  the  Eng- 
lish came  and  took  it  from  them,  and  called  it 
New  York.  And  this  is  its  name  to-day,  the 
name  of  the  greatest  city  in  all  America,  the  city 
built  upon  the  land  which  Henry  Hudson  found. 

Let  us  return  to  Henry  Hudson.  He  soon 
saw  that  this  beautiful  stream  was  nothing  but  a 
river,  and  not  a  short  cut  to  the  Pacific  at  all. 
He  was  sorry,  of  course;  but  anyway,  he  did  a 
great  deal.  He  got  many  furs  from  the  Indians 
and  made  them  all  his  friends.  You  see  the 
Indians  liked  Hudson  because  he  was  good  to 
them.  He  did  not  treat  them  cruelly  as  the 
Spaniards  had  done,  and  he  did  not  try  to  rob 
them,  or  murder  them,  or  make  slaves  of  them; 
and  the  Indians  never  forgot  this  kindness,  and 
from  that  time  on  they  were  friendly  to  all  the 
Dutch  who  came  to  that  part  of   the  country. 

At  first  the  Indians  did  not  know  what  to  say 
or  do  to  Hudson  and  the  white  men.  Like  the 
other  Indians  of  our  stories,  they  had  never  seen 
a  ship  or  a  white  man  before.  Some  of  them 
thought    that    the     ship  was  a  great    fish  or  an 


THE     ENGLISHMAN     WHO     SAILED     FOR     THE     DUTCH 


'.     ■■■:, 


•7-KI 


animal,  and  still  others  believed  that  it  was  a 
strange,  new  house  that  floated  on  the  water. 
As  for  Hudson,  they  thought  he  was  the  Mani- 
tou,  or  Great  Spirit,  who  was  the  god  of  the 
Indians,  and  they  worshipped  him  in  a  very 
queer  way.  Gathering  in  a  great  circle,  they 
danced  around  him  all  their  queer  Indian  dances, 
because,  being  a  great  spirit,  they  thought  that 
their  dancing  would  please  him. 

Then  Henry  Hudson  gave  the  Indians  axes 
and  shoes  and  stockings,  but  the  red  men  did 
not  know  what  to  do  with  the  gifts.  They 
thought  the  heads  of  the  axes  and  the  shoes 
must  be  ornaments  to  be  worn  about  the  neck, 
and  the  stockings  they  used  to  put  tobacco  in 
and  they  hung  them  at  their  belts.  Now,  I  think 
that  shoes  and  stockings  were  very  foolish  gifts 
to  make  to  the  Indians,  because  everybody  knows 
that  they  always  wear  mocassins;  but  the  axes 
were  a  very  sensible  present.  The  Indians  were 
pleased  with  these  axes.  They  cut  down  trees 
and  chopped  wood  for  their  fires,  much  more 
easily  than  before,  when  they  had  used  their  big 
hunting  knives. 

Well,  the  Indians  certainly  did  like  Hudson 
and  Hudson  liked  the  Indians;   so  one  day  the 


123 


THE 


MEN         WHO         FOUND        AMERICA 


chief  invited  him  in  to  dinner.  It  would  not 
have  been  polite  to  refuse  this  invitation.  You 
see,  Hudson  could  not  say  that  he  had  a  "pre- 
vious engagement,"  which  is  the  way  some 
people  have  of  making  excuses  when  they  do 
not  want  to  go  anywhere.  Anyway,  Hudson 
really  wanted  to  go.  When  he  came  to  the  wig- 
wam, he  found  the  chief  seated  on  a  mat  on  the 
ground.  Hudson  looked  around  for  a  chair;  but, 
as  there  was  none,  he  sat  down  on  a  mat  too, 
and  waited  for  what  would  come  next.  Then 
the  food  was  served.  It  was  in  two  big  wooden 
bowls  and  of  only  one  kind — a  sort  of  stew, 
made  up  of  pigeons  and  dog  cooked  together. 
Now,  a  dog  isn't  a  very  good  thing  to  eat,  at 
least  we  don't  think  it  is;  but  the  Indians  thought 
this  a  very  fine  feast.  Well,  Hudson  was  polite, 
and  he  had  such  a  good  time  at  the  dinner  that 
the  Indians  were  sorry  when  he  sailed  away. 

I  think  that  Henry  Hudson  wanted  to  come 
back  again  to  the  friendly  Indians;  but  when  he 
reached  Europe,  the  English  kept  his  vessel  and 
made  him  stay  in  England.  Hudson  wanted  to 
sail  again  for  the  Dutch,  but  his  own  people  said, 
"No;  you  must  sail  for  us.  You  must  not 
find  new  lands  for  any  country  but   England." 


luniuitK 


124 


THE     ENGLISHMAN     WHO     SAILED     FOR     THE     DUTCH 


si 

*  -    V.'.Sl 


■afca*! 


So  the  next  year  the  brave  Hudson  sailed  once 
more,  and  this  time  he  sailed  on  an  English 
ship.  He  took  with  him  his  own  son,  a  young 
lad,  and  a  man  named  Henry  Green,  and  also  a 
good  many  sailors.  You  will  hear  of  this  Henry 
Green  again  before  this  story  is  ended. 

Far  north  Hudson  steered  the  little  vessel, 
and  soon  he  came  to  a  great  bay  which  no  white 
man  had  ever  seen  before,  and  which  was  after- 
wards called  Hudson's  Bay,  because  Hudson 
found  it.  Here  it  was  very  cold  indeed,  and 
every  day  it  grew  colder.  The  ice  froze  around 
the  vessel,  and  for  eight  months  the  little  ship 
could  not  move  an  inch.  Food  got  scarce,  and 
then,  as  always  happens,  the  men  were  afraid  of 
starving  and  longed  to  get  home.  As  soon  as  the 
ice  began  to  melt  even  a  little,  they  begged  Hud- 
son to  go  back  to  England.  "  Do  not  stay  in  this 
cold  land,"  they  said,  "where  we  shall  surely 
freeze  and  starve  to  death."  But  Hudson  would 
not  do  this.  He  believed  that  at  last  he  was 
in  the  Northwest  Passage,  and  would  soon  find 
the  Pacific  Ocean.  "Be  brave,"  he  said,  "for 
this  ship  shall  not  return  to  England  until  I  find 
out  about  this  bay."  Perhaps  these  words  of 
Hudson  would  have  kept  the  men  quiet  if  it  had 


\M 


125 


THE 


MEN 


WHO 


FOUND         AMERICA 


r 


not  been  for  the  wicked  Henry  Green.  Hudson 
had  always  been  friendly  to  Green,  but  this 
wicked  man  was  not  grateful.  Night  and  day 
he  talked  to  the  men  until  he  got  them  to  turn 
against  their  good  captain.  And  they  did  turn 
against  him  in  this  way. 

Hand  and  foot  both  Henry  Hudson  and  his 
son  were  tied  so  tight  that  they  could  not  get 
loose,  and  then,  with  seven  sick  men,  they  were 
put  in  a  little  boat  and  turned  adrift  in  the  great 
sea,  while  the  wicked  Henry  Green  and  the  other 
men  sailed  home  to  England.  When  they  reached 
home,  I  am  glad  to  say,  these  wicked  men  were 
all  punished.  They  were  put  in  prison,  and  a 
ship  was  sent  to  Hudson  Bay  to  look  for  the 
brave  Henry  Hudson;  but  he  was  not  found, 
and  to  this  day  no  one  knows  what  became  of 
the  little  boat  and  of  good  Captain  Hudson. 

So  I  suppose  that,  left  alone  without  food,  he 
died  there  in  the  great,  frozen  sea.  But  who 
knows?  There  were  many  simple  Dutch  people 
who  lived  near  New  York,  in  the  Catskill  Moun- 
tains, who  never  believed  that  Hudson  was  dead. 
Whenever  it  thundered  in  the  hills,  these  old 
men  used  to  say,  "Henry  Hudson  and  his  men 
are  playing  ninepins  in  the  mountains." 


$MmWm£lmar. 


126 


THE    FATHER    OF    NEW    FRANCE 


SSW 


«>»- 


7^   FATHER  */  NEW   FRANCE 

ABOUT  three  hundred  years  ago,  there  lived 
.  in  France  a  man  who  wanted  to  find  a  new 
country.  He  loved  France,  its  green  fields  and 
its  cool  forests,  its  rivers  and  quiet  country  roads, 
its  cottages  and  its  beautiful  palaces;  but  what 
this  man  wanted  was  a  New  France,  a  country 
where  Frenchmen  could  go  and  speak  their  own 
language  and  meet  other  Frenchmen. 

This  man's  name  was  Samuel  Champlain. 
Even  as  a  little  boy,  when  he  played  with  other 
lads  in  the  fields,  he  had  this  one  plan — to  find  a 
new  country  for  France.  He  knew  that  he  could 
find  this  country  in  America,  because  America 
was  so  big;  so  he  asked  everybody  he  met  to 
tell  him  what  they  knew  about  the  great  wild 
country  beyond  the  sea. 

He  asked  questions  about  the  lakes  of 
America,  its  rivers,  its  great  forests  and  its  wide 
plains.  He  asked  questions  about  its  gold  and 
silver,  its  mines  and  fisheries,  and  the  vegetables 
and  fruits,  and  everything  that  grew  there. 

Now,  in  the  little  town  in  which  Champlain 
grew   up,  there    lived   some    fishermen  who  had 


:>;■'  H 


0 


127 


THE 


M  E  N 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


Eiifflfe 


been  to  America.  They  had  not  been  in  the 
southern  lands,  like  Mexico,  Florida  and  Peru, 
where  the  Spaniards  had  gone  for  gold.  The 
Spaniards  did  not  like  the  French,  and  they 
would  not  let  a  Frenchman  live  in  the  countries 
that  belonged  to  them;  so  these  bold  fishermen 
of  France  sailed  further  north.  They  used  to 
start  in  the  first  warm  days  of  spring,  in  their 
little  fishing  boats,  and  sail  all  the  way  across 
the  ocean  to  America.  Here,  in  the  quiet,  silent 
waters,  off  the  coasts  of  Maine  and  Newfound- 
land, they  would  fish  all  summer,  and  when  the 
weather  got  cold,  they  would  sail  back  with  their 
fish  to  their  little  homes  in  France. 

They  were  very  brave  men,  I  can  tell  you, 
these  French  fishermen.  Sometime  one  of  them 
would  get  caught  in  a  storm,  and  his  little 
boat  would  go  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  cold 
sea.  Then  a  poor  woman  in  France  would  sit 
by  the  window  waiting  for  her  husband  to  return 
— waiting,  waiting,  waiting.  And  sometimes 
these  fishermen  would  land  on  the  shore  in 
America,  or  sail  their  boats  up  the  rivers.  They 
told  Champlain  of  the  wonderful  sights  they  had 
seen;  of  the  wide  rivers  rushing  down  from  the 
north;  of  the  deep  quiet  of  the  beautiful  forests; 


THE        FATHER        OF 


N  E  W 


FRANCE 


■  ?;0 


of  the  tall  spruce  and  pine  trees;  of  the  clean, 
cold  waters  of  the  little  lakes.  They  told  how 
the  naked  Indians  went  about  in  light  canoes, 
made  of  the  bark  of  trees;  how  these  Indians 
would  carry  their  canoes  on  their  backs  from 
river  to  river  and  from  lake  to  lake.  They  told 
Champlain  of  the  beautiful  brown  and  white 
furs  that  the  Indians  had — furs  so  soft  and  warm 
that  any  lady  in  France,  even  the  Queen  herself, 
would  be  happy  to  wear  them. 

When  Champlain  had  heard  all  these  stories, 
he  became  more  eager  than  ever  to  make  a  new 
France  in  America.  This  cold  country  of  the 
lakes  and  forests  did  not  have  gold  and  silver 
mines;  but,  after  all,  thought  Champlain,  "gold 
and  silver  are  not  the  only  things  in  the  world." 
The  Frenchmen  who  would  live  in  this  New 
France  could  get  fish  from  the  rivers,  beautiful 
woods  from  the  forests,  and  soft,  warm  furs  from 
the  Indians.  Champlain  dreamed  of  the  time 
when  all  this  country  would  be  filled  with 
Frenchmen,  living  in  beautiful  new  cities,  and 
loving  and  obeying  the  King  of    France. 

Now4  Champlain  was  just  the  man  to  find  a 
new  country.  He  was  very  wise,  and  very,  very 
brave.     Of   all  the  men  who  went    to  America, 


;Ay@N 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


Spaniards  and  Frenchmen,  Dutchmen  and  Eng- 
lishmen, I  do  not  think  there  was  anyone  braver 
than  Champlain.  When  he  was  still  very  young, 
he  had  sailed  in  the  French  ships  and  had  learned 
to  be  a  good  sailor  and  a  plucky  soldier.  He 
had  fought  in  many  battles  for  his  King,  and  no 
one  could  ever  say  that  Samuel  Champlain  was 
a  coward. 

Then  later,  after  he  had  left  the  army,  Cham- 
plain went  to  the  West  Indies  and  to  Mexico. 
Here  he  saw  the  lands  that  Columbus  had  found, 
the  lands  that  Cortez  had  conquered,  and  he 
watched  all  that  the  Spaniards  were  doing  in 
these    soft,  warm  lands  to  the  south. 

But  as  I  told  you,  the  bold  Champlain  wished 
to  find  his  new  country,  not  in  the  warm  lands 
to  the  south,  but  in  the  cold  countries  to  the 
north.  So,  after  a  while,  he  joined  a  little  band 
of  Frenchmen  who  were  going  to  the  great 
country  which  is  now  called  Canada.  Now,  these 
Frenchmen  with  whom  Champlain  went  were 
good,  kind  men.  They  did  not  kill  the  Indians 
nor  rob  them,  as,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  so  many 
other  white  men  did,  but  they  loved  the  Indians. 
There  was  one  man  among  them  who  was  very, 
very   kind.      His   name    was    Poutrincourt.      He 


umuii* 


THE         FATHER        OF         NEW 


FRANCE 


mi 


had  been  a  great  lord  in  his  own  country,  but 
he  did  not  want  to  go  back  to  his  beautiful 
France.  He  lived  peacefully  and  happily  with 
the  Indians,  taught  them  new  ways  of  farming 
and  many  other  things  of  which  they  had  never 
heard  before.  And  the  Indians  loved  the  French 
lord  as  they  did  their  own  father.  Even  the  little 
Indian  children  used  to  come  in  and  out  of  his 
house  whenever  they  liked,  and  lie  on  the  ground 
while  he  ate  his  dinner;  and  every  now  and  then 
he  threw  them  raisins  and  nuts,  which  they 
caught  in  their  little  brown  hands. 

Now,  this  life  was  very  beautiful;  but  Cham- 
plain  was  not  happy.  He  wanted  this  great 
country  of  America  to  belong  to  France,  and 
he  wanted  to  learn  all  about  its  rivers  and  lakes 
and  forests,  so  that  the  other  people  who  would 
come  later  would  know  the  way  to  go  and  the 
best  places  to  live  in.  Across  great  forests  he 
went,  looking  at  rivers  and  islands  and  lakes,  till 
at  last  he  reached  the  mighty  St.  Lawrence  River, 
where  another  Frenchman  had  been  a  hundred 
years  before.  Here  Champlain  stayed  for  several 
months,  and  then  he  returned  to  France. 

But  the  next  year,  which  was  1608,  Cham- 
plain   came    back    again    to   the     St.     Lawrence 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


F  0  U  N 


River.  He  began  now  to  build  a  little  city 
called  Quebec,  which  was  to  be  the  great  city  of 
the  new  country;  but  even  before  his  workmen 
were  through  putting  up  the  first  houses,  there 
was  trouble  for  good  Champlain.  Among  the 
men  whom  he  had  brought  with  him  from 
France,  was  a  very  wicked  fellow  named  Duval. 
I  do  not  know  why  Champlain  let  him  come 
along,  but  I  suppose  that  at  first  he  did  not  know 
how  wicked  Duval  really  was.  You  see,  many  of 
the  soldiers  who  first  went  to  America  were  very 
cruel  and  very  wicked.  Anyway,  this  Duval 
made  a  plan  with  three  other  men  to  go  to 
Champlain's  bed  while  he  slept.  Then  all  the 
four  men  were  to  take  Champlain's  neck  in  their 
hands  and  squeeze  it  till  he  could  not  breathe,  and 
so  strangle  him  to  death.  It  would  have  gone 
hard  with  Champlain  if  one  of  the  men  had  not 
told  him  of  this  wicked  plot.  When  Champlain 
heard  it,  he  arrested  the  four  men.  He  then  had 
the  wicked  Duval  hanged,  and  the  other  three 
men  he  sent  back  to  France  to  be  punished. 

But  this  was  not  the  last  of  Champlain's 
troubles.  A  great  sickness  called  scurvy  broke 
out  among  the  men  who  were  with  him.  Of 
the  twenty-eight  men,  twenty  died,  and  only  eight 


13? 


Champlain  came  back  to  the  St.  Lawrence  River  and  began  to  build  a  little 

city  called  Quebec." 


THE 


O  F 


N  E  W 


FRANCE 


o- 


were  left  to  bury  the  dead.  Even  these  eight  men 
were  sick,  and  every  day  they  came  to  Champlain 
and  begged  him  to  take  them  back  to  France. 
"  Do  you  not  remember,"  they  said;  "do  you  not 
remember  how  warm  and  sunny  and  beautiful  it 
is  at  home;  how  the  blue  grapes  hang  in  heavy 
bunches  on  the  green  vines;  how  the  lovely 
women  smile  with  joy,  and  the  little  children 
play  about  our  knees  and  beg  us  for  stories? 
Let  us  go  back  to  our  beautiful  France  and  to 
our  wives  and  children."  But  Champlain  told 
them  to  be  brave  and  patient;  so  they  waited, 
and  in  the  spring  their  courage  was  rewarded. 
More  ships  came  with  brave  Frenchmen,  and 
these  ships  were  loaded  down  with  food;  so  all 
the  men  with  Champlain  were  again  happy. 

Champlain  had  learned  that  it  was  best  to  be 
kind  to  the  Indians,  and  so  it  happened  that  all 
the  Indians  near  Quebec  were  his  friends.  Now, 
one  day  Champlain  heard  of  a  great  lake  to  the 
south,  and  he  wanted  to  go  there  to  find  out  all 
about  it.  So  he  asked  the  friendly  Indians  to 
take  him;  but  they  shook  their  heads.  "We 
cannot  go  there  in  peace,"  they  said,  "because 
of  the  Five  Nations."  "Who  are  these  Five 
Nations?"  asked  Champlain.     Then  the  friendly 


WiiVrir 


l 


mmUBiimiim 


133 


THE 


R  I  C 


Indians  answered  him  quickly:  "They  are  our 
enemies,  these  Five  Nations.  They  are  Indian 
tribes  who  kill  us  when  they  can,  and  whom  we 
kill  when  we  can. '  We  are  always  at  war.  "  But," 
they  told  Champlain,  "though  we  cannot  go  to 
the  great  lake  in  peace,  we  are  going  there  in 
war.  We  are  going  to  fight  the  Five  Nations. 
Come  with  us,  you  and  your  men  and  your  guns, 
and  fight  with  us  against  these  peoples." 

So  Champlain  and  two  of  his  men  went  with 
the  friendly  Indians  to  fight  the  Five  Nations. 
There  were  sixty  Indians  in  all,  and  they  trav- 
eled in  light  canoes,  going  down  the  rivers  that 
emptied  into  the  Great  Lake.  The  Indians  in 
front  always  held  their  bows  in  their  hands,  ready 
to  shoot  if  they  should  see  any  of  the  warriors 
of  the  Five  Nations,  and  those  in  the  back  canoes 
were  always  looking  around  for  animals,  so  that 
they  could  shoot  them  and  cook  them,  so  that  the 
little  army  would  have  enough  food.  Every  night 
they  sent  a  few  canoes  ahead  to  watch  out  for 
the  enemy. 

At  last,  one  evening,  as  Champlain  and  his  men 
were  canoeing  down  the  lake,  they  met  the  Indians 
of  the  Five  Nations.  There  were  two  hundred 
Indians     in    this    army;     but    the    sixty    friendly 


mmiiittt 


r*# 


m 


:M 


134 


THE    FATHER    OF    NEW    FRANCE 


2S5S 


Indians  were  not  afraid,  because  they  had  Cham- 
plain  with  them.  "When  the  Five  Nations  seethe 
guns  of  the  Frenchmen,"  said  the  chiefs  among 
themselves,  "and  hear  them  speak  noise  and  fire 
and  death,  they  will  be  so  afraid  that  they  will 
run  away  and  we  will  win  the  battle." 

It  was  too  late  to  fight  that  night,  so  both 
little  armies  waited  until  the  sun  rose  on  the  lake 
the  next  morning.  During  all  the  long  hours 
they  stayed  near  each  other,  and  in  the  darkness 
they  each  called  the  others  cowards.  They  made 
a  great  noise,  I  can  tell  you. 

Well,  the  fight  began  the  next  morning,  and 
then  the  army  of  the  Five  Nations  had  a  great 
surprise.  The  first  thing  they  saw  was  a  white 
man  in  gleaming  armor,  who  held  a  gun  in  his 
hands,  and  had  a  gleaming  sword  in  his  belt. 
The  Indians  shot  their  arrows  at  this  white  man, 
but  the  arrows  did  not  do  any  more  harm  than 
if  they  had  been  shot  at  a  rock.  Then  Cham- 
plain  aimed  his  gun  and  shot  bullets,  and  two 
of  the  chiefs  of  the  Five  Nations  fell  down  dead. 
Two  other  Frenchmen  shot  bullets  and  more 
chiefs  fell  dead.  Now,  the  Five  Nations  had 
never  seen  men  killed  in  this  way  before.  They 
could  not  see  the  bullets  that  went  so  fast  through 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


FOUND 


the  air,  and  they  thought  that  the  white  men  had 
killed  their  chiefs  with  a  noise;  so  the  army  of 
the  Five  Nations  grew  very  much  afraid.  One 
of  the  Indians  began  to  run,  then  another,  then 
another,  and  soon  their  whole  army  was  running 
away.  The  Indians  who  were  with  Champlain 
ran  after  them,  shooting  them  with  their  arrows, 
killing  and  catching  very  many.  I  think  that 
both  sides  were  very  cruel,  and  it  seems  to  me 
sometimes  that  Champlain,  though  he  was  a  brave 
man  and  a  very  wise  man,  would  have  done  bet- 
ter if  he  had  kept  out  of  all  their  quarrels;  for, 
from  that  day,  the  Five  Nations  were  always  the 
enemies  of  the  French,  and  would  never  let  the 
French  go  to  the  south,  where  they  wanted  to  go. 
After  this,  came  busy  years  for  the  brave 
Samuel  Champlain.  He  had  found  his  new 
country  for  France,  and  every  year  he  traveled 
over  it  and  learned  more  about  it.  He  traded 
with  the  Indians  for  their  beautiful  furs  and 
sent  them  to  France,  where  the  fine  ladies  of  the 
Court  wore  them  in  the  winter.  Champlain  sent 
a  young  Frenchman  to  study  the  Indian  lan- 
guages, so  that  Champlain  could  talk  to  them 
in  their  own  way,  and  he  sent  an  Indian  to 
France  to  learn  to  speak  French. 


iimiuuK 


136 


- 


THE 


FATHER    OF    NEW 


FRANCE 


But  Champlain  was  too  brave  to  stay  always 
in  Quebec,  and  so  every  now  and  then  he  would 
go  on  a  great  trip.  Once  he  went  north  to  find 
a  great  salt  sea  that  a  Frenchman  had  told  him 
about.  It  was  one  of  the  hardest  and  most  dan- 
gerous trips  that  a  man  ever  took.  There  were 
great  swamps,  where  Champlain  sank  to  his 
waist;  and  deep  forests,  where  the  bushes  and 
brushwood  were  so  thick  and  dense  that  he  had 
to  cut  his  way  with  a  great  knife  before  taking 
a  step.  And  all  these  hardships  were  useless, 
for  there  really  wasn't  any  great  salt  sea;  so,  of 
course,  they  never  found  it. 

Then  Champlain  went  on  a  second  long 
journey  to  the  west.  He  traveled  with  the 
friendly  Indians  for  many  weeks,  till  at  last  they 
came  upon  the  town  of  the  Five  Nations.  You 
would  have  been  surprised  to  see  that  town.  It 
was  not  like  other  cities,  with  streets,  and  stores, 
and  brick  houses,  and  electric  cars.  It  was  just 
a  few  plain,  long,  one-story  houses,  as  big  as 
theatres.  In  these  houses  were  a  lot  of  little 
rooms,  and  in  each  room  a  family  of  Indians. 
Around  the  town  were  four  rows  of  stakes,  like 
telegraph  poles,  and  the  Indians  stood  behind 
these  poles  when  they  shot  their  arrows. 


j!L> 


m 


.  ■  --, 


- 


m 


THE 


\S 


M  E  N 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


This  time  the  Indians  who  were  with  Cham- 
plain  were  beaten  in  the  fight,  because  they  would 
not  do  as  the  Frenchman  told  them.  Even  Cham- 
plain  himself  was  shot  twice  in  the  leg,  and  the 
Indians  had  to  carry  him  away  in  a  basket  that 
they  fastened  to  their  backs.  You  see,  they  were 
friends  of  Champlain,  and  they  did  not  want 
him  to  be  caught  and  killed  by  the  Indians  of 
the  Five  Nations. 

That  was  a  hard  winter  for  Champlain.  The 
Indians  who  were  friendly  to  him  wanted  him  to 
stay  with  them,  and  when  he  asked  for  a  guide 
to  show  him  the  way  back  to  his  home  in  Quebec, 
they  would  not  let  him  go.  You  see,  Champlain 
did  not  know  this  country  as  well  as  the  Indians 
did,  and  he  was  afraid  of  getting  lost  in  the  forest; 
but  the  Indians  treated  him  well,  and  when  the 
spring  came  around  again  they  took  him  home 
to  his  city  of   Quebec. 

After  this,  Champlain  worked  day  and  night 
to  build  up  his  new  country.  He  tried  very 
hard  to  make  it  pleasant  for  the  people  who  lived 
in  Quebec,  and  always  tried  to  get  more  French- 
men to  come  from  France  and  live  in  the  new 
country.  Every  year  he  took  the  long  journey 
across  the  ocean  and  told  everybody  there  of  the 


UliflHI* 


THE    FATHER    OF    NEW    FRANCE 


?m 


wonderful  land  of  America.  Of  all  the  things 
in  the  world,  what  Champlain  most  wanted  was 
to  make  this  new  France  even  greater  and  more 
beautiful  than  the  old  France. 

I  think  that  if  Champlain  had  not  been  a  very 
patient  man,  he  would  have  many  a  time  given  up 
Quebec  and  gone  back  to  France  to  lead  a  peace- 
ful, quiet  life.  Oftert  things  went  very  bad  indeed. 
New  people  did  not  cross  the  ocean  as  fast  as 
Champlain  wanted  them  to,  and  those  who  did 
come  grumbled  and  quarreled.  Often,  too,  the 
food  gave  out  and  the  people  got  sick  and  many 
starved.  But  Champlain,  though  he  was  now  a 
pretty  old  man,  would  never  give  up.  Once 
some  English  warships  sailed  into  the  harbor 
and  asked  Champlain  to  give  up  the  city  to  them. 
The  brave  Frenchman  had  hardly  any  soldiers; 
but  he  said,  "No;  I  will  never  give  up  my  city 
of  New  France.  As  long  as  I  have  a  man  or  a 
bullet  left,  I  will  never  give  up  the  city  of 
Quebec."  And  after  a  while,  the  English  cap- 
tain became  frightened  because  he  thought 
that  Champlain  might  have  a  big  army,  and  so 
he  sailed  away;  but  the  next  year  three  more 
English  vessels  sailed  up  the  harbor,  and  as  this 
time    Champlain    had    only    sixteen    half-starved 


THE 


M  E  N 


WHO         FOUND         AM  ERIC 


men,  he  had  to  surrender.  But  England  did  not 
long  keep  the  city.  It  was  handed  back  to 
France,  and  Champlain  was  again  sent  out  to 
Quebec  as  commander  over  the  little  town. 

So  Samuel  Champlain,  the  boy  who  had 
dreamed  of  New  France,  now  went  back  once 
more  to  that  country;  but  his  days  were  almost 
over.  He  became  very  ill,  and,  after  lying  in 
bed  for  more  than  two  months,  he  died  an  old 
man,  at  the  age  of   sixty-eight  years. 

Many,  many  years  later,  there  was  a  great  war 
between  France  and  England,  and  after  the  war 
was  over  the  whole  country  of  New  France  was 
given  to  England.  The  English  changed  the 
name  of  the  country  to  Canada;  but  even  now 
there  are  more  than  a  million  people  living  there 
who  speak  French,  and  who  are  the  children  of 
the  children  of  the  children  for  many  genera- 
tions, of  the  men  who  lived  with  Champlain. 
And  even  now,  after  three  hundred  years,  these 
Frenchmen,  and  other  people  in  Canada,  and 
people  all  over  the  world  for  that  matter,  revere 
the  name  of  the  great  and  good  Champlain,  and 
call  him,  as  they  used  to  call  him  so  long  ago, 
"The  Father  of  New  France." 


140 


THE 


FRIENDS 


i&sr 


I  N  D  I  A  N 


THE    FRIENDS  of  the   INDIANS 

MANY,  many  years  ago,  two  Frenchmen, 
traveling  through  a  new,  wild  forest  coun- 
try, came  upon  a  cross  that  was  all  covered  with 
flowers.  There  were  no  white  men  in  all  this 
country,  and  so  the  Frenchmen  wondered  who 
had  put  the  cross  there,  and  who  had  placed  the 
flowers  on  it;  but  later  they  learned  that  the 
Indians  in  this  part  of  the  country  had  laid  the 
flowers  on  the  cross.  Then  the  Frenchmen  knew 
that  these  Indians  were  friends,  because  every- 
where the  French  went  they  carried  the  cross, 
and  taught  the  Indians,  who  loved  them,  to  place 
flowers  on  it. 

Now,  these  two  Frenchmen  were  very  good 
men.  They  treated  the  Indians  kindly,  and  the 
Indians,  who  liked  to  be  treated  kindly,  were  also 
good  to  the  Frenchmen.  There  is  a  very  good 
lesson  in  all  this.  If  you  want  people  to  be  good 
to  you,  then  you  must  always  be  kind  to  them. 

Now,  all  the  Frenchmen  who  came  to  America 
knew  this,  and  from  the  first  they  were  kind  to 
the  Indians.  The  Spaniards  had  been  very  harsh. 
They  had  killed  the   red  men  or  made  slaves  of 


<«*— 


141 


THE         MEN         WHO         FOUND        AMERICA 


mm 


% 


'••■'..     '•■' 


mM 


iJJk 


m 


mum 


them,  and  sometimes  the  Indians  had  been  cruelly 
beaten  until  they  died.  They  had  been  tortured, 
too;  hung  up  by  their  fingers  and  toes;  roasted 
over  a  hot  fire;  starved,  and  even  chased  with 
great,  fierce  blood-hounds.  So  I  am  not  sur- 
prised that  the  Indians  did  not  love  the  Spaniards. 

Now,  the  English  and  Dutch  who  came  to 
America  were  not  quite  so  cruel  as  the  Spaniards, 
but  sometimes  they,  too,  treated  the  Indians 
harshly.  For  a  very  little  wrong  they  would 
shoot  an  Indian  or  burn  down  a  whole  Indian 
village.  Besides,  they  were  very  proud,  and 
thought  that  the  red  men  were  only  savages,  and 
they  did  not  want  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
them;  and  this,  I  may  tell  you,  is  a  very  bad 
way  to  act  and  think,  if  you  want  people  to  like 
you  and  help  you. 

The  Frenchmen  who  came  to  America  acted 
much  more  wisely.  They  really  loved  the 
Indians,  and  often  lived  with  them  in  their  poor 
little  villages.  Some  of  the  Frenchmen  had  been 
great  lords  in  their  own  country.  They  had  had 
beautiful  castles,  with  fine,  big  rooms,  and  gold 
and  silver  and  wonderful  carpets.  They  had  had 
many  servants  to  wait  on  them,  and  everything 
in  the  world  that  they  wanted.     Yet   these  very 


mifomit 


142 


THE 


FRIENDS 


O  F 


THE         INDIANS 


W3 


men  were  not  too  proud  to  sleep  on  the  ground 
in  the  hut  of  an  Indian,  or  share  with  him  a 
meal  of  corn  and  dried  meat.  They  hunted  with 
the  Indians;  they  fished  with  them,  they  smoked 
their  pipes  with  them,  and  Indians  and  French- 
men sat  around  the  roaring  camp-fire  and  talked 
together,  or  looked  up  in  silence  at  the  bright 
little  stars.  Wherever  the  Frenchmen  went,  they 
put  up  little  chapels,  and  here  Frenchmen  and 
Indians  kneeled  down  side  by  side  and  prayed 
to  the  good  God.  The  French  priest  would  bap- 
tize the  little  red  children,  and  when  they  grew 
old  enough  to  understand,  he  would  teach  them 
about  God  and  the  Bible. 

Some  of  the  Indians  became  Christians,  and 
hung  flowers  on  the  little  crosses  which  the 
Frenchmen  built  all  over  the  country.  And  so 
it  was  that  when  our  two  Frenchmen  saw  the 
flowers  on  the  cross,  they  rejoiced  and  were  glad, 
because  they  knew  that  even  in  this  wild  coun- 
try, far  away  from  all  white  men,  they  were  with 
friends. 

Now,  these  men  were  not  only  very  good,  but 
they  were  also  very  brave.  One  of  them  was 
named  Louis  Joliet.  He  had  been  sent  by  the 
King  of   France  to  find  out  some  good  way  to 


<M 


143 


THE 


MEN 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


f&*g£ 


w 


-AdMAMfa*** 


the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  other  was  Father  Mar- 
quette, a  French  priest,  as  brave  a  man  as  any 
soldier.  This  Father  Marquette  had  lived  with 
the  Indians  many,  many  years.  He  knew  their 
languages  and  all  their  customs,  and  the  Indians 
loved  him  and  called  him  their  friend. 

Well,  it  was  not  an  easy  thing  that  these  brave 
Frenchmen  were  trying  to  do.  No  white  man 
had  ever  been  in  all  this  country  before.  It  was 
much  pleasanter  staying  in  Quebec,  the  city 
which  good  Champlain,  the  Father  of  New 
France,  had  founded;  but  Joliet  and  good 
Father  Marquette  were  not  afraid  of  danger. 
They  sailed  down  the  St.  Lawrence  River  into 
the  Great  Lakes,  and  then  on  and  on  and  on, 
day  after  day,  and  day  after  day,  until  at  last  they 
reached  Lake  Michigan.  I  think  this  part  of 
their  journey  must  have  been  the  most  pleasant. 
The  weather  was  warm,  the  Indians  they  met 
were  friendly,  and  now  and  then  they  would 
come  across  some  Frenchman  who  was  living 
out  in  the  wild  country,  trapping  animals  for 
their  furs  or  trading  with  the  Indians;  and 
sometimes  they  would  meet  a  good  French  priest, 
who  had  come  this  great  way  to  teach  the  Indians 
about  God. 


'•SV 


jm 


m 


"The   Indians  loved   the  brave  Father  Marquette,  and  called  him  their  friend." 


THE    FRIENDS 


O  F 


THE 


INDIANS 


:: 


Well,  at  last  they  left  the  last  Frenchman  and 
the  last  wooden  cross,  and  started  down  a  narrow 
but  beautiful  river  that  they  believed  flowed  into 
the  Mississippi.  The  little  river  was  so  choked 
with  rice  that  grew  wild  along  its  banks  that  the 
boats  found  it  hard  to  move.  Here  their  guides 
left  them,  and  then  for  a  week  they  drifted  slowly, 
slowly  down  the  river,  till  at  last,  with  cries  of 
joy,  they  came  to  the  Mississippi. 

Now,  this  Mississippi  River  is  the  greatest 
river  in  America,  and  one  of  the  greatest  rivers 
in  all  the  world.  It  was  the  same  river  that  De 
Soto  had  found  so  many,  many  years  before, 
when  the  Indians  had  told  him  that  its  name  was 
the  Father  of  Waters.  Now,  you  see,  whatever 
country  owned  the  Mississippi  River,  the  great 
river  that  flowed  from  little  streams  all  the 
way  down  to  where  it  emptied  into  the  great, 
great  sea,  that  country  would  own  all  the  land 
along  its  banks,  and  so  would  be  the  greatest 
country  in  America.  This  was  why  Joliet  and 
Father  Marquette  wanted  to  sail  all  the  way  down 
the  river,  so  that  all  the  land  on  its  banks  might 
belong  to  France.  Besides,  they  thought  that 
perhaps  it  flowed  into  the  Pacific  Ocean.  You 
see,   Joliet  and   Father  Marquette   had   no   good 


THE 


MEN 


WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


maps,  and  they  did  not  know,  as  you  and  I  know, 
that  the  Mississippi  River  flowed  not  west  into 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  but  south  into  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico. 

When  the  two  brave  Frenchmen  reached  the 
Mississippi  River,  they  were  a  little  afraid  of  the 
Indians  who  lived  along  its  banks.  Perhaps 
these  Indians  would  be  their  enemies  and  would 
kill  them;  so  they  no  longer  left  their  canoes 
at  night  and  slept  on  the  banks  about  a  roaring 
camp-fire.  They  feared  that  the  sharp  eyes  of 
unfriendly  Indians  might  see  the  smoke,  and  that 
they  might  come  and  cut  off  their  scalps  while 
they  slept ;  so  they  tied  their  canoes  to  the  shore 
and  they  rolled  themselves  up  in  blankets,  so  as 
to  be  ready  to  wake  in  a  minute  and  paddle  away. 
They  also  made  one  of  their  men  stay  awake  all 
night  to  watch  for  the  red  men;  but  for  eight 
days  there  was  not  an  Indian  in  sight. 

On  the  ninth  day  they  saw  a  path  leading  up 
from  the  river,  and  they  knew  that  this  path  must 
go  to  an  Indian  village.  Joliet  and  Father  Mar- 
quette did  not  know  whether  these  Indians  were 
friendly  or  not  ;  but  they  were  both  brave  men. 
Maybe  their  hearts  beat  a  little  faster,  as  they 
thought    that,   perhaps,   the    Indians    would    kill 


'.*> 


#««■ 


m 


146 


THE    FRIENDS 


O  F 


THE 


INDIANS 


em;  but,  anyway,  they  did  not  show  any  fear 
they  walked  up  the  path  to  the  village.  Well, 
after  all,  the  Indians  were  friendly.  The  chief 
came  forward  with  hands  raised  above  his  head, 
which  was  always  a  sign  of  friendship  with  the 
Indians.  Then  other  red  men  waved  the  long 
pipe  of  peace,  which  was  the  same  as  though 
they  had  said,  "Let  us  be  friends,  oh,  white 
men!"  The  two  Frenchmen  were  invited  to  take 
dinner,  and  the  chief  told  them  stories  about  the 
Great  River  and  about  the  other  Indians  that 
lived  along  its  banks.  And  at  last,  when  Joliet 
and  Father  Marquette  said  good-by,  all  the 
Indians  went  with  them  as  far  as  the  river,  and 
the  Indian  chief  gave  them  a  present,  which 
was  better  than  gold,  or  silver,  or  diamonds,  or 
rubies. 

Now,  I  suppose  you  will  want  to  know  what 
was  this  present  that  was  better  than  gold,  or 
silver,  or  diamonds,  or  rubies.  Well,  I  will  tell 
you;  it  was  a  pipe.  Not  a  stale  old  pipe,  such 
as  a  man  carries  in  his  pocket,  but  the  calumet, 
the  pipe  of  peace.  Wherever  Joliet  and  Father 
Marquette  went,  all  they  had  to  do  was  to  show 
this  calumet,  or  pipe  of  peace,  and  every  Indian 
knew  that  the  great  chief   was  the  good  friend 


iMx 


THE 


y  -  :■; 


MEN        WHO 


FOUND 


AMERICA 


ii    iiMi  ri— *riJ—f' 

of   these  white  men;    and  many  times   this   pipe 
saved  the  lives  of   the  two  brave  Frenchmen. 

Well,  wherever  they  went,  Joliet  and  Father 
Marquette  showed  the  calumet  of  the  great 
Indian  chief,  and  then  the  other  Indians  were 
friendly  too.  And  these  two  Frenchmen  were  so 
good  and  brave  that  the  Indians  liked  them  for 
their  own  sakes;  so  down  the  river  they  sailed, 
past  big  forests  and  beautiful,  rolling  prairies, 
until  one  day  they  saw  a  wide,  yellow  river  that 
flowed  into  the  Mississippi.  This  was  the  Mis- 
souri, a  great,  yellow,  roaring  river,  and  if  they 
had  time,  I  think  the  two  Frenchmen  would  have 
sailed  up  it;  but  they  could  not  stop.  So  day 
after  day  they  sailed  on  down,  down,  down  the 
Mississippi.  I  think  that  they  must  have  had  a 
good  time  of  it,  seeing  a  new  country  all  the 
while;  but  they  did  not  go  the  whole  way. 
When  they  had  gone  many  hundreds  of  miles, 
they  were  told  stories  of  some  very  cruel  Indians 
who  lived  in  the  south.  The  friendly  Indians 
said  to  them,  "If  you  fall  into  the  hands  of  these 
bad  Indians,  they  will  surely  tie  you  to  a  pole 
and  burn  you  alive;  and  if  you  escape,  perhaps 
the  Spaniards  will  catch  you,  and  they  are  as 
wicked    as    the    others." 


II 


"■-S3 
m  ' 


THE 


FRIENDS 


O  F 


THE 


INDIANS 


sfis»" 


So  Joliet  and  Father  Marquette  talked  it  over 
for  a  long  time,  and  at  last  they  thought  it  would 
be  wiser  to  go  back.  Slowly  they  sailed  up  the 
Mississippi  River,  and  then  across  the  country  to 
the  Great  Lakes,  and  back  the  same  way  they  had 
come.  On  the  way  home  they  saw  graceful, 
white  swans,  with  long,  beautiful  necks,  swim- 
ming on  the  little  silver  lakes,  and  in  the  dark, 
green  forests  were  cattle,  and  goats,  and  beautiful 
brown  deer,  with  wonderful  spreading  horns. 
At  last  they  reached  Quebec,  and  all  the  people 
in  the  town  wanted  to  hear  of  the  great  adven- 
tures and  lucky  escapes  of  Joliet  and  Father 
Marquette. 

Now,  there  was  a  brave  man  named  La  Salle, 
who  heard  these  stories  from  the  mouth  of  Joliet. 
This  La  Salle  was  a  very  great  man  in  France. 
His  family  were  nobles  and  were  very  rich,  and 
young  La  Salle,  whose  first  name  was  Robert, 
had  been  well  brought  up,  and  had  been  taught 
many  things.  He  was  so  good  that  he  even 
became  a  priest,  and  everybody  said  that  Robert 
La  Salle  was  a  very  good  and  a  very  wise  man. 

But  Robert  La  Salle  wanted  to  go  to  America, 
not  only  to  find  new  lands,  but  also  to  find  what 
so  many  others  had  tried  to  find,   a  new  way  to 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


F  O  U  N  D 


AMERICA 


,  ■ 


, 


the  Pacific  Ocean.     So  he  gave  up  being  a  priest 
and  went  to  the  great,  new  country  of  America. 

La  Salle  was  not  only  a  wise  man,  but  one 
who  thought  a  great  deal,  and  now  he  thought 
of  a  new  plan.  This  plan  was  to  build  little 
French  forts,  very  little  but  very  strong,  all  the 
way  along  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi 
River;  and  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  he 
planned  a  great,  great  fort.  He  wanted  to  put 
French  soldiers  in  these  forts,  so  that  the  whole 
river  and  all  the  country  around  would  belong 
to  France.  When  this  was  done,  Frenchmen 
could  go  everywhere  to  get  furs,  and  soon  little 
cities  could  be  built,  and  there  would  be  a  great, 
strong,  New  France  in  America.  So  the  dream 
of   Champlain  would  come  true. 

Now,  the  first  thing  La  Salle  had  to  do  was 
to  sail  down  the  great  Mississippi  and  find  the 
best  places  for  his  little  forts  and  trading  posts; 
and  this  was  not  an  easy  thing  to  do.  In  those 
days  it  was  a  long  and  hard  journey  from  Quebec 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Great  River,  and  La  Salle 
tried  many  times  before  he  succeeded.  On  the 
first  trip  his  ship  was  wrecked  in  a  great  storm 
and  nearly  everything  was  lost.  Then  he  had  no 
food,  and  had  to  sail  back  miles  and  miles  and 


IlllilUlliH 


m 
SB*.  t)).tflMt:Mlii 

150 


THE    FRIENDS    OF    THE    INDIANS 


m 


■lis 


miles  to  get  bread  and  meat.  Later,  his  money 
gave  out,  and  he  had  to  wait  until  he  had  sold 
enough  furs  to  buy  a  new  ship.  And  then,  when 
his  men  tried  to  sail  on  the  lakes,  the  wind  blew 
against  them,  and  many  times  they  had  to  sleep 
on  the  icy  ground,  with  nothing  but  the  sky  over 
them.  Often  and  often  they  had  no  food  at  all 
but  a  few  handfuls  of   corn. 

But  the  worst  trouble  that  La  Salle  had  was 
with  his  men.  They  did  not  want  to  do  much 
work,  and  they  were  always  complaining  because 
the  journey  was  so  hard  and  because  they  had 
nothing  to  eat.  Now,  they  knew  very  well  before 
they  started  that  it  would  not  be  easy,  and  so  I, 
for  one,  think  that  they  ought  not  to  have  com- 
plained; but  so  it  is  with  people.  Some,  like 
La  Salle's  men,  will  grumble  and  grumble  over 
every  little  thing,  while  others  will  bear  all  sorts 
of   hardship  and  never  say  a  word. 

Now,  there  were  with  La  Salle  two  men  who 
never  complained.  One  was  his  faithful  French 
friend,  Tonti,  and  another  faithful  friend  was  an 
Indian.  These  two  men,  one  a  Frenchman  and 
one  an  Indian,  loved  La  Salle  and  did  whatever 
he  asked.  The  Indian  knew  the  forest.  He 
could  find  his  way  through  the  great,  thick  trees 


MEN         WHO         FOUND         AMERICA 


even  in  the  dark;  so  La  Salle  took  him  as  his 
guide.  When  everybody  else  was  tired  and 
cross,  this  good  Indian  was  as  brave  and  as 
patient  as  ever.  This  was  because  he  loved  La 
Salle,  and  because  La  Salle  was  always  kind  to 
all  Indians. 

Well,  all  the  time  the  troubles  of  La  Salle 
grew  worse  and  worse.  Sometimes  the  little 
streams  were  filled  with  ice,  so  that  the  canoes 
had  to  be  moved  on  sledges,  and  sometimes 
these  brave  men  had  to  wade  for  miles  in  water 
up  to  their  waists.  Of  course,  the  brambles  and 
thorns  tore  their  clothing  to  rags,  and  when  it 
grew  cold,  their  clothes  froze  as  hard  as  ice. 
Then  they  had  to  stop  and  build  a  fire  before 
they  could  go  any  further. 

I  am  sure  these  were  times  when  even  the 
brave  heart  of  La  Salle  almost  broke,  but  not 
once  did  he  give  up.  Again  and  again  he  tried, 
day  after  day,  till  at  last,  after  years  of  disap- 
pointment, La  Salle  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  River.  His  patience  and  persever- 
ance were  finally  rewarded.  It  was  in  February, 
over  two  hundred  years  ago,  that  the  Father  of 
Waters  and  all  the  country  nearby  was  given  by 
La  Salle  to  the  King  of    France. 


pirt.'JW 

MM 


152 


'■•■Vi 


THE 


FRIENDS 


O  F 


THE 


INDIAN 


mm 


k0& 


You  can  imagine  the  joy  of  La  Salle  when  at 
last  he  reached  the  end  of  his  long  journey.  He 
put  up  a  cross  on  the  banks  of  the  river.  Then 
he  asked  all  his  men  to  kneel  down  and  pray. 
Then  it  was  that  he  named  the  new  country 
Louisiana,  in  honor  of  King  Louis,  and,  in  a 
loud  voice,  called  out  that  from  that  time  on  all 
the  land  should  belong  to  France. 

And  for  many  years  the  great  country  of  the 
Mississippi  did  belong  to  France.  But  later, 
much  later,  when  the  grandchildren  of  the  men 
who  had  been  with  La  Salle  were  all  dead,  a  new 
country  grew  up  in  America — our  country,  the 
United  States.  And  to  us  the  French  sold  all 
this  great  country  of  the  Mississippi.  Yet  the 
name  of  Louisiana  is  still  the  name  of  one  of 
our  States,  and  even  to-day  all  Americans  think 
of  La  Salle  as  a  great  and  good  man  who  did 
well  for  his  country. 

For  all  his  good  deeds  La  Salle  was  not 
rewarded  as  he  should  have  been.  Two  years 
after  he  had  found  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  he  came  back  again  with  four  ships  and 
two  hundred  and  eighty  men.  This  time  he 
wanted  to  build  the  city  and  fort  that  he  had 
planned  so  many  years   before;    but  the  captain 


153 


THE        MEN        WHO        FOUND        AMERICA 


of  these  vessels  was  a  very  stupid  and  a  very 
jealous  man.  He  took  La  Salle  to  the  wrong 
place  instead  of  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  when  La  Salle  wanted  him  to  sail  again  and 
try  once  more  to  find  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
this  evil  man  would  not  do  so;  so  La  Salle 
started  by  land.  Now  he  had  no  map,  and  it 
was  much  further  than  he  thought.  Then,  too, 
there  were  many  hardships,  and  his  men  grumbled 
and  grumbled,  and  would  not  do  as  he  said. 
And  at  last  two  of  the  men,  who  were  very 
wicked,  hid  behind  trees,  and  when  La  Salle  was 
walking  to  the  camp,  they  shot  him  dead. 

And  that  was  the  end  of  Robert  La  Salle,  the 
man  who  found  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  who  was  one  of  the  true,  good  and  great 
friends  of   the  Indians. 


W     HAT 


CAME 


O     F 


I     T 


*5* 


WHAT    CAME    OF    IT    ALL 

AND  now  ray  stories  are  ended.      What  won- 
.  derful  stories  they  are!     How  strange  and 
how  true! 

As  I  finished  my  last  story,  I  closed  my  eyes, 
and  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  saw  again  all  those 
brave  men  who  had  come  from  the  East  to  explore 
our  America.  I  saw  them  all — noble  and  swine- 
herd, priest  and  soldier,  Spaniard  and  French- 
man, and  Englishman  and  Dutchman.  I  saw 
the  wise  Columbus  following  the  Queen  from 
place  to  place,  begging  her  to  let  him  sail  to  the 
Indies.  And  again  I  saw  him,  after  he  had 
found  America,  when  he  was  an  old  man,  poor, 
sick  and  forgotten.  And  so,  too,  I  saw  the 
others — the  wicked  Balboa,  the  brave  Henry 
Hudson,  the  good  Father  Marquette,  who  loved 
the  Indians  and  was  loved  by  them. 

How  strangely  it  all  happened!  These  bold 
men  searched  for  one  thing  and  found  another. 
Columbus  looked  for  the  Indies  and  found 
America;  De  Soto  hunted  for  gold  and  came 
to  the  Mississippi  River,  and  Ponce  de  Leon 
wanted  a   fountain  of   youth,    so  that  he   might 


^g 


f*R? 


4mmks 


A 


L     L 


VMi- 


155 


THE 


M  E  N 


W  H  O 


drink  the  waters  and  never  die,  and  instead  of 
youth  and  life  he  found  Florida  and  death.  And 
so  it  was  with  the  others.  The  unfortunate 
Henry  Hudson  never  thought  of  the  great  city 
of  New  York,  which  was  to  grow  up  on  his 
river;  he  only  thought  of  a  short  cut  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  And  the  wicked  Balboa,  who 
hid  in  a  barrel,  did  not  think  that  he  would  be 
the  first  man  to  look  upon  the  great  ocean;  but 
all  he  wanted  was  to  get  away  from  the  men  who 
had  lent  him  money.  So  strangely  did  it  all 
happen! 

Yes,  they  were  strange  men  and  they  led 
strange  lives.  Up  and  down  they  went,  some- 
times rich,  sometimes  poor,  but  always  bold  and 
daring.  A  man  who  had  nothing  in  all  the 
world  would  stumble  upon  a  great  empire  and 
become  rich  and  famous  in  the  eyes  of  all  men. 
Think  of  Cortez,  who  came  out  of  prison  to 
conquer  all  of  Mexico,  and  who  became  so  rich 
that  he  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  his  money, 
though  at  last  he  died  poor  and  unhappy!  And 
think  of  Pizarro,  the  barefooted,  bareheaded 
swineherd,  who  became  one  of  the  greatest  and 
richest  and  wickedest  men  in  all  the  world! 
How  strange  Cortez   must   have   seemed    to  the 


illll'Jll.K 


156 


PC 


«'i* 


Aztecs,  who  had  never  before  seen  a  white  man, 
nor  a  horse,  nor  a  gun,  nor  a  house  that  sailed 
on  the  sea!  And  how  strange  the  greedy  Pizarro 
must  have  looked  to  the  Incas,  and  how  strange 
and  curious  the  Incas  and  their  wonderful  coun- 
try must  have  seemed  to  Pizarro! 

Just  so  strange  and  wonderful  were  the  things 
that  happened  to  the  other  explorers.  There  was 
the  nobleman,  De  Vaca,  who  became  a  slave  to 
the  wild  Indians.  Then  there  was  bold  Captain 
Smith,  whose  life  was  saved  by  the  Little  Red 
Princess  of  the  Forest;  and  stranger  still,  this 
same  little  girl,  who  had  saved  his  life  in  Vir- 
ginia, saw  him  again  in  London,  and  this  time 
she  was  a  Christian  and  an  Englishman's  wife, 
and  the  friend  of  the  King  and  Queen  of  all 
England.     It  was  all  very,  very  strange. 

I  wish  that  I  could  really  see  all  these  great 
men — the  wise  Columbus,  who  sailed  new  seas 
and  found  America;  the  patient  Champlain,  the 
good  Father  of  New  France;  the  bold  La  Salle, 
who  sailed  down  the  Mississippi  River;  the  faith- 
ful Henry  Hudson,  the  brave  De  Soto,  and  all 
the  others.  Yes,  I  should  like  to  meet  them,  to 
shake  their  hands,  to  hear  from  their  own  lips 
their    wonderful     stories;     but     this    cannot   be. 


wm 


£fe 


■■ 


THE         MEN         WHO        FOUND        AMERIC 


All  of  these  things  happened  hundreds  of  years 
ago,  long  before  I  was  born,  and  all  the  men 
and  all  the  women,  all  the  Kings,  and  Queens, 
and  nobles,  and  sailors,  and  soldiers,  and  priests, 
and  Indian  chiefs — all  are  dead. 

And  now  you  will  ask  me  what  came  of  it 
all.  Well,  that  is  another  story,  or  rather,  I 
should  say,  many  stories.  Many  brave  men 
came  to  America,  and  many  brave  men  lived 
here,  and  strange  and  wonderful  things  hap- 
pened; but  the  end  of  it  all  was  that  a  new 
country  arose  in  America — the  United  States,  and 
you  and  I  and  all  other  Americans  have  this  good 
land  for  our  country. 

And  so  we  Americans,  who  live  in  the  coun- 
try that  Columbus  found,  and  the  others  explored 
and  conquered,  should  always  remember  those 
brave  men  who  risked  their  lives  so  many,  many 
years  ago;  and  for  this  reason  we,  who  love 
America,  should  be  grateful  to  them  all,  but 
especially  to  the  one  who  first  pointed  out  the 
way — to  the  bold  sailor  who  crossed  an  unknown 
sea,  the  good,  wise  Christopher  Columbus,  the 
man  who  found  America. 

[  THE    END.] 


tHillllltX 


mm 
Hi 


ISWii 


